
Book ,W A 4- 



THE 



BRITISH, ROMAN, AND SAXON 



ANTIQUITIES AND FOLK-LORE 



OF 



WORCESTERSHIRE. 



BY JABEZ ALLIES, F.S.A. 



SECOND EDITION. 



LONDON: 
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH. 

36, SOHO SQUAEB. 

MDCCCLVI. 



PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



In the Preface to the First Edition of this work, published 
in 1840, 1 stated that, in collecting the facts there detailed, 
my principal object was to show the unsubstantial nature 
of the doubts of Dr. Nash, and some other writers, as to 
whether the Romans had stations to any extent in the 
interior of the County of Worcester ; but that, in the pur* 
suit of this subject, I was led to discoveries relating to 
periods both prior and subsequent to the Roman occupation 
of these islands. 

Since the publication of that edition, many additional 
facts have been added relative to the Antiquities of the 
County, while various errors and doubtful etymologies have 
been expunged. 

In a few instances, the Border Antiquities of the neighbour- 
ing counties have been noticed, principally in connection 
with those of the County of Worcester. 

Relics, of a date later than that indicated by the title page, 
have in some cases been described; these, however, were 
generally found on the sites of earlier antiquities. 

In conclusion, I beg to return my best thanks to all 
those who have kindly rendered me their assistance during 
the progress of these collections, particularly to John 
Clifton, Esq., and the other gentlemen at the Consistory 
Court of Worcester, for favouring me with the inspection 



IV PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

of the Apportionments of Kent Charge for the county under 
the Tithe Commutation Act, amongst which documents I 
made an extensive and laborious search for all names of 
fields and places savouring of antiquity or peculiarity ; To 
H. C. Hamilton, Esq., of Her Majesty's State Paper Office, 
for much valuable assistance relative more particularly to 
our Anglo-Saxon Antiquities; To the Worcestershire Na- 
tural History Society, and to Dr. James Nash, Walter 
Jones, Esq., John Amphlett, Esq., and Mr. Eaton, for 
the loan of several ancient relics; To the Archaeological 
Institute of London, and to J. H. Parker, Esq., of Ox- 
ford, for the use of some of their woodcuts; and to the 
Society of Antiquaries of London, for the use of their 
copper-plate engraving of the Perdeswell Tore. The 
remaining Illustrations were prepared for the sole purpose 
of elucidating some of the descriptions contained in this 
volume. 

JABEZ ALLIES. 



31, Hallifobd Steeet, Islington, 
September 1852. 



-4—^—3— 



CONTENTS. 



Aftee describing Worcester, from p. 1 to 54, the other places 
in which ancient relics have been discovered are classed under 
several supposed Itinera ; namely — 

Iter I. 

PAGE 

From Worcester, southward, to Kempsey, Upton, Rip- 
ple, and Twyning* ; then westward to Eldersfield, 
Pendock, The Berrow, and Bromsberrow -j- ; then 
north-westward to Castle Morton; and by the 
Midsummer Hill Camp and the Herefordshire 
Beacon Camp, on Malvern Hills, north-eastward, 
to Powick, and back to Worcester, . . .54, 74 

Iter II. 

From Worcester, south-eastward, to Eckington, Ad 
Antonam, Strensham, Norton in Bredon, Bredon 
Hill (Keraerton)l, Bredon Hill (Conderton), Sedge- 
barrow and Iccomb, or Icombe § ; then north-west- 
ward to the Four Shire Stone, Dorn, Badsey, 
Church Honeybourne, Quinton||, OfFenham, 
Cleeve Prior, Crowle, Bredicot, and back to 
Worcester, . . . . . . . 74, 98 



* Twyning is in Gloucestershire, but nearly surrounded by Worcestershire. 
+ This is in Gloucestershire, upon the borders of Worcestershire. 
\ Also in Gloucestershire, upon the border of Worcestershire. 
§ This was a detached part of Worcestershire, but is annexed to Gloucester- 
shire by the Reform Bill. 
II In Gloucestershire. 



vi CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Iter III. 

From Worcester, northward, by Elbury Hill Camp to 
Droitwich, Ombersley, Salwarp, Stoke Prior, 
Lincomb in Astley, Hartlebury, Bromsgrove, 
Chaddesley Corbett, Belbroughton, Clent, Hagley, 
Hales Owen, and Dudley ; then westward, to 
Wassal Hill ; then northward, to Kenvaur Edge, 
and south-westward to Over Arley* ; then south- 
ward, to Ribbesford, Tickenhill, Soddington, 
Mamble, Stockton, Lindridge, Holt, "Wichenford, 
Grimley, Bevere Island, and back to Worcester, . 98, 153 

The chains of hills, with their antiquities, and the 
remarkable places adjoining them, are described in the 
following order : — 

Iter IV. 

The chain of hills and adjacent places which run on 
the western side of the county, from the south to 
the north ; namely, the Malvern Hills, Bears 
Wood, Old Storage, Alfrick, Ankerdine Hill, 
Whitbournef, The Berrow Hill, Woodbury Hill, 
and Abberley Hill, 153,216 

Iter V. 
The chain of Toot and other Hills, and adjacent places, 
which run on the east side of Worcester, from 
south to north; namely, Cruckbarrow Hill; Os- 
waldslow, in White Ladies Aston ; The Round Hill, 
alias Cuggan Hill, in Spetchley ; Perry, or Pirie 
Wood ; Trotshill, Troshill, or Tootshill ; Elbury 
Hill ; Astwood ; Barrow Cop, in Perdeswell, and 
Tutnall, in Claines; and also Toot Hills generally, 216,. 238 

The following are the lines, or supposed lines, of 
the ancient roads, Vicinal-ways, Salt-ways, Rycknield 

* Kenvaur Edge and Over Alley are in Staffordshire. 
+ In Herefordshire. 



CONTENTS. Vll 

PAGE 

Street or Kidge-way, and Foss-way; with notices of 
the ancient camps and remarkable names of fields and 
other places in such lines : — 

Iter VI. 

From Wall Hills, near Ledbury and Malvern Hills, to 
Old Storage, Ankerdine, The Berrow, and Wood- 
bury Hills, 238,255 

Itee VII. 

From Malvern Hills, partly through Worcestershire, 

and partly through Herefordshire, to Tenbury, &c. 255, 261 

Iter VIII. 

"From Worcester, by Woodbury Hill, in Great Witley, 

to Tenbury, &c -. .261,270 

Iter IX. 
From Droitwich to Stourbridge, .... 270, 275 

Iter X. 
From Wall Hills Camp, in Herefordshire, partly 
through Worcestershire, and partly through Glou- 
cestershire, to Gloucester, ..... 275, 277 

Iter XI. 

From Wall Hills Camp to the Herefordshire Beacon 
Camp, on Little Malvern Hill, and then to the 
Bycknield Street, at or near Tewkesbury, . . 277, 280 

. Iter XII. 
From Wall Hills Camp to Towbury Hill Camp, in 

Twyning Parish, Gloucestershire, . . . 280, 282 

Iter XIII. 
From Wall Hills Camp to Upton, or the Saxons' Lode. 
From the Herefordshire Beacon Camp to Hanley Quay. 
From Great Malvern Hill to the Khyd, . . . 282, 286 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Itek XIV. 

Portway from Kenchester to Frome Hill and Stifford's 
Bridge,. in Cradley, in Herefordshire, and through 
Cowley Park and Powick to Worcester ; and from 
thence to Ombersley, Hartlebury, and Wolverley, 
to Over Arley, 286, 290 

Iter XV. 
The Western Trackway from Tewkesbury, through 
Worcester, to the Trench Lane and Droitwich, 
and from thence to Hadley Heath Camp, in 
Ombersley, Wassal Hill Camp, in the Parish of 
Kidderminster, to Over Arley, .... 290, 309 

Iter XVI. 

The Upper Salt-way from Droitwich to Edgbaston, 

near Birmingham, ... . . 309, 316 

Iter XVII. 

The Lower Salt -way from Droitwich to Alcester ; then 
southward by the Honeybournes, and through 
Weston-sub-Edge, to the Cotswolds, at Middle 
Hill ; and then to North Leach and Coin St- 
Aldwins, &c 316, 323 

Iter XVIII. 

The Lower Deviation Salt-way from Droitwich, along 
the Trench Lane, &c, to Pershore, Ashton-under- 
Hill, North Leach, &c. 323, 329 

Iter XIX. 

The Kycknield Street or Kidge-way, and its Deviation 

Lines, 329,354 

Iter XX. 
The Foss-way, 354, 358 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

Also, the following Chapters, namely : — 

Chapter I. 
On the places called Wick, Wich, and Wiccia, . . 358, 363 

Chapter II. 

On the Bambuiy or Banbury Stone, in Kemerton Camp, 
otherwise Bambury Camp, on Bredon Hill, and on 
Ambrosise PetraB in general, . . . . 363, 381 

Chapter III. 
On Logan Stones and Hole Stones, . . . 381, 383 

Chapter IV. 
On Hoar Stones, 383, 397 

Chapter V. 
On places called " Oldbury," 397, 399 

Chapter VI. 
On ancient spots called by the name of " Castle," . 399, 401 

Chapter VII. 
Observations on the ancient names of Fields, &c, . 401, 404 

Chapter VIII. 
Summary of the places called " BAdgeway," . . 404, 405 

. Chapter IX. 
The like of places called " Portway", . . . 405, 406 

Chapter X. 
The like of places called " Street," .... 406, 407 

Chapter XI. 
The like of places called " Vineyard," . , . 407, 409 



CONTENTS. 



Chaptek XII. 



On " Folk-Lore ;" particularly on the Ignis fatuus, or 

Will-o'-the-Wisp, and the Fairies, . . 409 to 470 



The following are the principal contents of the 
" Folk-Lore :"— 

Ignes fatui, as seen in December, 1839, and January, 

1840, in Powick, 

Hob, Hoberdy, Hobany, Hob-goblin, Robin, 
Dobbies, ....... 

Cob, . . . . . 

Knop, Knap, ....... 

Puck, Hob, Robin Good-fellow, Poake-ledden, 
Oseberrow, or Osebury Rock, in Lulsley, and the Fairies 
Inkberrow and Upton Snodsbury, Fairies, 
Hoberdy 's Lantern, Hob, Robin, Robert, Puck, and 

Pooka, or Phooka, 
Robin Hood, . 
Jack-o'-Lantern, 
Will, 

The Eternal Waggoner, 
Elf, Eoten, or Oughton, 
Pinket, . 
Pixie, 

Wish or Wisked Hounds, 
Mab, 
Tom Thumb, Patch, Grim, Sib, Tib, Licke, Lull, Hop, 

Drip, Pip, Trip, Pinck, Pin, Tick, Tit, Wap, and 

Win, 

Pig-wiggen, Wiggen Ash, and Nornies, 

Tinkers Cross, in Leigh 

Robinet, . 

Blackswell, 

Bates-Bush, in Lulsley, 

Black Jack, 



409 
412 
414 
416 
417 
418 
418,443 
419 

420 
429 
430 
431 
433 
434 
435 
436 
ib. 
437 



438 
441 
442 
443 
ib. 

446 



CONTENTS. 








xi 


Lulsley, Etymology of, 
Alfrick, Fairies, 






PAGE 

446 
440, 447 


Anglo-Saxon Elf, and Fairy Names s 
Fairy Kings, .... 
The Seven Whistlers, 








451 
456 
459 


The Devil's Dream, . 








460 


The Mysterious Black Cat, 








ib. 


Witchery Hole, 

Old Coles, .... 








462 
ib. 


Lady Lightfoot's Spectre, . 
Devonshire Spectre, 
Sir Thomas Boleyn's Spectre, . 
Spunkies, . 

Kelpies, 

As to what causes an Ignis fatuus, 








464 

ib. 

465 

467 

468 

468, 470 



Appendix, 



471,473 




ILLUSTKATIONS. 



Relic or Antiquity. 




w— ' 

Place where found. 


Plate. 


No. 


Page. 


Angerona, one of the Roman 
Penates ..... 


1 Worcester 


• 




. 14 


Roman and Anglo-Saxon Relics, 
Castle Hill ... . 


}....:'. 


Plate I. . - 


' 1 

to 
,18 


• 18 


Ancient British Coin 


55 


. 




. 26 


Roman Urn, Diglis 


55 


. 




. 29 


Ancient British barbed Spear-head, 
Diglis 


j....;. 


• 




. 30 


The like. British Museum . 




. 




. 31 


Anglo-Saxon Coin 


55 






. 37 


Ruins of St. Clement's Church 


55 • • 




,3j 


. 38 


Dane Skins, Worcester Cathedral . 


55 • • 


Plate II. . • 


- 50 


Wolstan's Seal .... 






. 52 


Roman Fibula 


. 


Kempsey . 




1 


. 54 


55 55 • 




55 


. 


2 


. 55 


„ Pottery 




55 


. 


3 \ 




55 55 • 
55 55 




55 

55 • • 


• 


4 
5 


- 56 


J? 55 ... 




55 


. 


6 , 




Ancient British Spear-head . 


. 


55 • « 


. 




. 60 


Signet Thumb Ring, Saxons' Lode 


Upton 

Morton Folliot, 


) 




. 62 


Mediaeval Seal 


or 
.Castle Morton . 


1 • ■ 




. 71 


Roman Urn 


Powick 


• 


•j 


. 73 


„ Basin, or Mortarium . 


Eckington. 


• -1 


■ 74 


Anglo-Saxon Relics . . .] 


Norton in Bre- 
don 


(.Plate III. . J 


i 


- 76 


Ancient Earring (2 cuts) 


Bredon Hill 


. 




. 84 


Roman Urn 


Bredicot . 


. 




. 95 


Curious Ring (2 cuts) . 




55 • • 


. 




. 96 



XIV 



JLLUSTEATIONS. 



Relic or Antiquity. 


Place where found. 


Plate. 


No. 


Paso. 


Roman Urn . . . 


Droitwich . 


Plate IV. . 


A 




,, „ . . . 


55 
Lineholt Com- > 


» 


2 




Ancient British Celt 


mon, Ombers- 

, ley . ., 


55 


3 




5? »>"»»••■• * 


Lincomb in Ast- 
. ley 


I . • 


4 




55 55 55 • • • 


Ribbesford . 


55 


5 


) 98 


55 »)»»••■ 


Holt . 


55 


6 




Roman Fibula . 


„ 


55 


7 




Ancient British Celt 


Grhnley 


55 


■ 8 
9 




„ „ Stone Axe 


55 


55 • 


10 




„ „ Knife . 
Barrow Hill, Tan Wood . • ! 


Bevere Isle 
Chaddesley Cor- 
bett 


55 • 

1 " ' 


11 J 


125 


Ancient British Hone, or Flaying 
Knife (2 cuts) . 


-Liiidridge . 
'Worcestershire 


) 




149 


Ancient British Urn (2 cuts) . 


Beacon, Mal- 
. vern Hill 


1 ■ ' 




165 


„ Celt . 


Malvern Link . 






167 


Legend of St. Werstan (4 cuts) : — 










1. St. Werstan' s Vision 


Malvern Church . 


. 


, 


173 


2. Dedication of the Chapel built 
by St. Werstan . 


I - ■ 


' 




175 


3. The Grant of Edward the Con- 
fessor .... 


I • ■ 


' 




177 


4. The Martyrdom of St. Werstan . 


» • 


. 


. 


179 


Bedford Bridge and Gate-house, 1 
Bunyan's Prison 


i •"• • 


Plate V. . 


• 


208 


Bunyan's Signet Ring (2 cuts) 


. 


• 


. 


209 


Ancient British Tore 


Perdeswell . 


Plate VI. . 


. 


230 


„ „ Camp . 


[ Bredon Hill, Ke- 
1- merton . 


1 • ■ 


• 


365 


The Bambury Stone 


55 • 




. 


ib. 


Ambrosiae Petrae Coin . 


. 




. 


378 


The like 


... 


. . 




379 



%x%\ of SbnHtxibm. 



The late Most Noble the Marquis of Northampton. 
The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Southwell. 
The Eight Honourable Lord Foley. 
The Honourable General Lygon, M.P. 
Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. 

Thomas Adams, Esq., Islington. 

J. Allcroft, Esq., Lower Wick, Worcester. 

Miss Amelia Ann Allies, Worcester. 

Frederic Allies, Esq., St. John's, Worcester. 

Robert Allies, Esq., Hill House, Worcester. 

William Bland, Esq., Hartlip Place, Sittingbourne, Kent. 

Henry John Brown, Esq., Wilmington Square, London. 

John Bruce, Esq., Treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries, London. 

Professor Buckman, F.L.S. and F.G.S., Cirencester. 

Colonel T. H. Bund, Great Malvern. 

Solomon Cole, Esq., Worcester. 

John Cramphorn, Esq., Bellevue Terrace, South Sea, Portsmouth. 

Edward Dalton, Esq., D.C.L. and F.S.A., Dunkirk House, near Nailsworth, 

Glouc ester shire. 
Mr. Frederick N. Gosling, Worcester. 
William Grane, Esq., Bedford Row, London. 
William James Grane, Esq., Bedford Row, London. 
J. M. Gutch, Esq., Common Hill, Worcester. 

J. 0. Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S. and F.S.A., Avenue Lodge, Brixton Hill. 
Rev. George Hodson, M.A , F.S.A., Henwick, Worcester. 
Edward Holland, Esq., Dumbleton. 
Thomas Jee, Esq., Peckleton Hall, Leicestershire. 
Lockhart Johnstone, Esq., Worcester. 
John Jones, Esq., Leigh, Worcestershire. 
B. G. Kent, Esq., Levant Lodge, Upton. 

Andrew Lawson, Esq., Aldborough Manor, Borough Bridge, Yorkshire. 
Mrs. Leach, The Newarke, Leicester. 
Samuel Lewis, Esq., Finsbury Place, London. 
Mr. Mansell, Gloucester. 

Mrs. Montague Marriott, Montpelier Square, Brompton. 
William Mence, Esq., Ronkswood, Worcester. 
James Nash, Esq., M.D., Worcester. 
The Rev. John Pearson, Rectoiy, Suckley. 
Mr. George Robinson, The Fir Trees, Redditch. 
Daniel Rowland, Esq., Grosvenor Place, London. 
The Rev. Edward W. Stillingfleet, Hotham, near Howden, Yorkshire. 
William Swainson, Esq., Walworth. 
William Jackson Taylor, Esq., Forest Hill, Surrey. 
Mrs. Thomas, White Ladies, Worcester. 
Boyes Thornton, Esq., Peckham. 

Charles Tucker, Esq., F.S.A., Suffolk Street, Pall Mall East. 
Albert Way, Esq., Wonham Park, Reigate, Surrey. — (2 copies.) 
The Rev. Joseph Webster, Rectoiy, Hindlip. 
Joseph Wontner, Esq., Clapton. 



WORCESTER. 



It is stated in Grose's " Antiquities*" that " Worcester 
is generally allowed to have been the Braviniumf of the 
Romans, mentioned in the twelfth journey of Antoninus, 
twenty-four miles from Magna, now Kenchesterj, in Hereford- 
shire, and twenty-seven from Uriconium, now Wrottesley§, in 
Staffordshire." But it is only of late years that any satis- 
factory evidence has been brought to light relative to the Roman 
occupation of the place. 

The following collections made upon the subject will, it is 
trusted, be found valuable, both as they respect the history of 
the City and County of Worcester, and also as adding to the 
general store of information relative to the olden times. 

In the year 1829, upon excavations being made to lay the 
basement of the house in the centre of Britannia Square, in 
Worcester, the foundation of a circular tower or fort of sandstone 
was found, about thirty feet in diameter ; while in the rubbish 
upwards of fifty Roman copper coins were discovered ||, some of 
Constantius, others of Constantine the Great, Decentius, 

* Vol. vi., Supp. 

+ This agrees with Stukeley's account. Gale says Rushbury, Horsley says 
Ludlow, and others say Lentwardine. 

I This agrees with Horsley's account. Gale and Stukeley say Magna means 
Old Radnor, and that Ariconium means Kenchester. 

§ Gale, Stukeley, and Horsley say Wroxeter, in Shropshire. 

|| It is also said that silver coins were found there, of Julia Mamaea, Julian, 
and Constans ; but as these were casually brought to me, I cannot vouch so 
well for them. 



Claudius Gothicus, and Magnentius ; but the greater part too 
decayed to be deciphered*. This tower or fort was, most 
probably, one of those which Tacitus states that the Roman 
Propraetor, Ostorius Scapula, constructed on the Severn, in the 
reign of the Emperor Claudius the First ; they were erected on 
the east bank, to check the Britons on the other side of the 
river. John Ross, a writer on antiquities, who flourished in the 
reign of Edward the Fourth, has reported Constantius Caesar as 
the founder of Worcester, on the credit of an old British 
chronicle he met with ; and Andrew Yarranton, in his work 
entitled " England's Improvement by Sea and Land," &c. (the 
first part of which was published in 1677, and the second in 
1698), states in the second part, page 162, as quoted by Dr. 
Nashf, inter alia, as follows : — " He says he found out a vast 
quantity of Roman cinders near the walls of the city of 
Worcester ; and within one hundred yards of such walls there 
was dug up one of the hearths of the Roman foot-blasts, it 
being then firm and in order, and was seven foot deep in the 
earth ; and by the side of the work there was found out a pot 
of Roman coine, to the quantity of a peck, some of which 
w T as presented to Sir Dugdale, and part thereof is in the King's 
closet ; — by all which circumstances it clearly appears that the 
Romans made iron in England, and as far up the river Severn 
as the city of Worcester, where as yet there are vast quantities 
remaining." 

Dr. Nash (in the absence of further evidence) strongly 
expressed his opinion that these were not Roman relics ; but in 
the corrections and additions to the second volume of his "History," 
page 97, he relaxed a little upon the point, and stated that " In 
June 1797 an underground drain was made, the whole length 
of the Broad Street, Worcester, and about the middle of the 
street from the Cross, near the house of Mr. Morton, cabinet 
maker, not far from the Bell Inn, was found a bed of iron 

* Harvey Berrow Tymbs, Esq., presented these coins to the Museum of 
the Worcestershire Natural History Society. 

f Vide Vol. ii. of Nash's " History of Worcestershire ; " Appendix, 
p. eviii. 



cinders, which extended up Mr Morton's yard, and probably 
on to the walls of the city, near which was a considerable iron 
foundery in the time of the Saxons, or perhaps, as some think, 
of the Komans. About two or three hundred yards from the 
city wall, up the river, is a place called Cinder Point, where a 
great quantity of the like scoriae are found. The specimen 
I have is very rich in metal. The cinders at Mr. Morton's 
and the Bell Inn were found to extend about forty yards in 
breadth; and at another place, near the Cross, opposite Mr. 
Wilson's, about ten yards." 

I have several times examined the stratum of iron scoriae and 
clinkers at Cinder Point, on the east bank of the Severn, in a 
place called Pitchcroft, and find that the bed is extensive, and 
the clinkers very rich in metal. I have no doubt that this is the 
place referred to by Yarranton. The stratum lies by the river 
side about six feet deep, beneath the alluvial soil, and was most 
probably the rough and half-smelted ore thrown aside in the time 
of the Komans, they having, it is said, only foot-blasts to smelt 
the ironstone. 

The supposed fort of Ostorius before mentioned stood exactly 
opposite to Cinder Point, at the distance of about 500 yards, on a 
ridge of ground, just out of floods-way, on the same side of the 
river, and would at all times guard the iron works. A few years 
ago, I saw a similar bed of scoriae and clinkers in the bank of a 
lane between English Bicknor Church and the river Wye, in 
Gloucestershire. This was pointed out to me by the Rev. 
Edward Feild, then Rector of that parish, and now Bishop of 
Newfoundland ; and also a mound in an adjacent pasture, from 
whence several years back a great quantity of clinkers were dug 
out, and taken to the iron works at the Forest of Dean, to be 
melted up again with iron ore, as such clinkers (like those at 
Cinder Point) are very rich in metal, and were considered greatly 
to improve the general mass ; but it is said that on account of a 
new mode in smelting, they are not now used-". These ancient 
works in Bicknor appear to have been flanked, overlooked, and 

* See an interesting account of the sites of Roman iron works in the above- 
mentioned districts, by Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A., in the " Gentleman's 
Magazine," January 1852, p. 33, &c. 



defended by a tower or fort, which stood at the top of the 
rising ground by the churchyard, and the site of which is still 
plainly visible. I was informed by the late Sir Samuel Kush 
Meyrick that the like scoriae and clinkers are to be seen in the 
grounds adjacent to Goodrich Court. 

Mr. Spriggs, of this city, has shown me a coin of Nero, dug 
up in his presence, in Broad Street, near the top of the street 
called Doldy, when the drain, referred to by Dr. Nash, was made 
there in 1797. This coin was struck in commemoration of the 
closing of the temple of Janus, in Nero's reign, which was the 
sixth time. On the obverse it has the portrait of the Emperor, 
with the inscription, NERO CLAVD. CAESAR AVG. GER. 
P.M. TR. P. IMP. P.P. ; and the reverse contains the temple of 
Janus, and the inscription, PACE P.R. TERRA MARIQVE 
PARTA IANVM CLVSIT. S.C. This coin is very interesting, 
as it shows that Tacitus was wrong in his statement that the 
temple of Janus was not shut after the time of Augustus till the 
reign of Vespasian*. Paten notices a similar coin in page 113 
of his work on Roman Coins, and remarks that although he was 
satisfied that the temple was shut by Nero, as the coin indicates, 
yet that the then state of the world did not justify it, and that 
was the reason why Tacitus and Orosius did not notice the fact. 

I have coins of Probus, Gratian, and Carausius, which were 
found a few years back in an excavated mass of soil upon which 
some old tenements stood in Doldy. In the " Stranger's Guide 
to Worcester," published in 1828, under the name of Ambrose 
Florence, the above ancient part of the town is noticed in page 
13, as follows : — " In the corporation book called ' Liber Legum,' 
made in the reign of Henry VII., it is ordered that all * Walshe 
catell ' coming to be sold be brought to Dolday ; " and in 
page 11, it is observed that " General Roy, in his 'Military 
Antiquities of the Romans in Britain,' says, ' If, however, 
Worcester was really a Roman town, which is no way im- 
probable, it seems to be that which Richard, in his Choro- 
graphy, assigns to the Dobuni, under the name of Branogena; 
but which, in his map, he calls Brangonum. This last is 
evidently the same with the name Wrangon, given to Wor- 
* Vide " Universal History," Vol. xiv., pp. 3~4. 



cester by the Welsh ; whence the Saxons changed it to Wrangon 
ceaster* ; and thence by corruption came its present name.'" 
And, in page 12, that " Nennius, an ancient British writer, gives 
a catalogue of the cities of Britain, the sixth of which is Cair 
Guoranegon, which is almost universally allowed by antiquaries 
to be our city; and, indeed, it is so called in the ancient 
British language at the present day." 

Upon the demolition of the old Saint Clement's Church in this 
city, Roman coins were found in the rubbish on digging up part 
of the ancient city wall which stood on the river side of that 
church ; and one of Domitian was discovered in the excavations 
for the new houses at Lark Hill Crescent, near Perry Woodf ; 
one of Valerian, an urbs Roma, and a silver one, I think of 
Septimus Severus, upon digging the foundations of Dr. James 
Nash's house, in the High Street ; and one of Maximian in the 
excavations for the new Saint Michael's Church, in College 
Street. 

Coins have also from time to time been found at Dunn's 
Gardens ; at The White Ladies, and at various other parts in and 
about the City, as follows : — 

A coin of Tetricus, discovered in the year 1843, as excavations 
were being made at the Commandery, in Sidbury ; one of Hadrian, 
dug up near the Cathedral; one of Trajan found, in the year 
1844, upon digging foundations to rebuild the house No. 46, 
High Street ; one of Carausius, discovered in 1 844, upon exca- 
vations being made behind the houses which lie on the north side 
of College Street and on the south side of Lich Street ; and, 
in the year 1847, coins of Hadrian and Nero were found, in 
making a cutting to lay gas pipes in the Corn Market. 

In January 1838, Mrs. Thomas, of The White Ladies, pre- 
sented a considerable number of Roman brass coins to the 
Museum of the Worcestershire Natural History Society, as hav- 
ing been found at that place and at Cruckbarrow Hill ; among 
these there are several Greek ones, of brass. For the following 

* It is spelled Wigornaceaster in the Saxon Chronicle, 922, 1041. See 
Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. ii., p. 558. Also see " Alfrick." 
f Vide " Ambrose Florence," page 130. 



description of them I am indebted to the kindness of J. Y. Aker- 
man, Esq., Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries*. 

1. Titus. IVDEA (CAPTA). Judsea seated under a palm 

tree. 

2. Antoninus C COS. IIIL The 4th Consulship of 

the Emperor. Security seated. 

3. Colonial Imperial of Gordian the Third, struck at Caesarea, 

in Cappadocia, in the fourth year of that emperor's 
reign. The reverse has the representation of Mount 
Argseus placed on an altar. 

4. Gallienus. Ke. : PROVIDENTIAE. Providence stand- 

ing. 

5. The like. APOLLONI CONS AVG. A centaur bend- 

ing a bow. 

6. Koman Empress of about the time of Gallineus. Oblite- 

rated. 

7. Claudius Gothicus. Ke. : (S)TATOEI. 

8. Quintillus. Ke. : CONCOKDIA. A woman holding two 

standards. 

9. Tetricus the Elder. Re. : SPES AVGG. Hope walking. 

10. Brass, of Probus. Struck at Alexandria. 

11. Diocletian. Ke. : CONCOKDIA MILITVM. In the 

exergue, ALE (for Alexandria). The Emperor and 
Jupiter, supporting between them a figure of Victory. 

12. Constantinus. Ke. : BEATA TRANQVILLITAS. An 

altar inscribed, VOTIS. XX. In the exergue, P T K. 
Struck at Treves. 

13. Constantine the Great. Ke.: SOLI INVICTO COMITI. 

Apollo standing. 

14. The like. Ke. : MARTI CONSEKVATORI. Man 

standing with spear and shield. 

* This batch also contained several British and foreign Mediseval and later 
coins, such as a Philip and Mary, Elizabeth, Charles I., Geneva Civitas 1678, 
Byzantine, Liard of Louis XIV. of France, and an East Indian ; some of which 
may have been buried at The White Ladies with the bodies of persons who 
fell at the battle of Worcester, in 1651. See the subsequent note. 



15. Magnentius, with the Christian monogram. 

J 6. Brass, of Magnentius. Re. : Victoria augg. et caess. 

17. Small brass, of Julian the Apostate. Head of the Empe- 

ror. Re. : A figure holding a standard. 

18. Valentinian. Re.: SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE. 

Victory holding garland and palm branch. 

19. Valens. 

20. Greek ? Head of Jupiter ? Re. : Male figure holding a 

standard and the hasta. 

21. Greek, of Catania. Head of Ceres. Re.: A tripod. 

22. Greek ? Re. : Male figure holding the hasta. 

23. Greek. Helmed head. Re. : OPOY (magistrate's 

name). A female figure. 

24. Greek? 

25. Greek, struck at Alexandria. Head of an emperor. Re. : 

Female figure with turretted crown, standing, holding 
the hasta. 

26. Greek — Athens. Helmed head. Re. : Minerva fighting. 

27. Greek, of Beotia. Head of Jupiter. Re. : A trident. 

28. Greek, of Thebes in Beotia. Head of Neptune. Re. : 

Trident. 

29. Greek, of Beotia. Re. : Trident. 

30. Carthage. Female head. Re. : A horse's head. 

31 . Catania. Head of Ceres. Re. : 

Upon a drain being made at The White Ladies, in 1842, 
across the lawn in front of the house, several Roman and Greek 
coins are said to have been found. The following Roman have 
been deciphered, viz. : — 

Antonia Augusta, Crispina, 

Domitian, Caracalla, 

Trajan, Gallienus, 

Hadrian, Claudius II., y Brass. 

Faustina Augusta, Tetricus, 

Diva Faustina, Carausius, 

Commodus, Gratian, 

Valens, Silver. 



8 

And the following Greek brass coins, viz. : — 

A coin of the series called uncertain Eoman. Obverse — 
Head of Mercury, with the Petasus ; four dots over the head 
denoting quadrans ; supposed to have been struck in Campania, 
after its conquest by the Romans. Reverse — Roma, over prow 
of a vessel. 

Coin of Arpi, in Apulia, anciently called Hippion. Reverse — 
A horse, apfanot. 

Coin of Augustus, struck at Alexandria. Reverse — An Ibis 
L IH , 18th year. 

Coin of Hiero II., Syracuse. Reverse — A trident, iepq.* 

Mrs. Thomas kindly presented these last-mentioned Greek 
coins to me. For the description of them, I am indebted to 
Albert Way, Esq., and a friend of his. 

Upon the last-mentioned discovery being made, I was sent for 
by the late Captain Thomas and Mrs. Thomas, and upon my 
arrival at The White Ladies, I saw the trench which had been 
cut through the lawn, and the coins lying on a table in the hall, 
where they had been placed by the Captain and his Lady, who 
informed me that they received them from the workmen as they 
were found in the cutting. 

Upon my communicating these facts, in the following year, to 
several numismatists, and showing them the coins, they enter- 
tained considerable doubt as to the finding of such Greek coins 
in that locality, and suggested that the workmen might have 
practised some deception in the matter, I therefore, in December 
1843, applied to Mrs. Thomas for any particulars she could give 
relative to the first-mentioned find of coins ; and in reply she 
informed me that those coins which she gave to the Worcester- 
shire Museum, were collected by her late father, Richard 
Ingram, Esq., who told her that some of them were from time 
to time dug up at The White Ladies, and that others of them 
were found in a field adjoining the south-west side of C ruck- 
barrow Hill, where he intended to have built a housef; and that 

* In the earth above the coins, several human skeletons were found, ^ 
probably the remains of persons killed at the Battle of Worcester, in 1651. 
+ But his death, in 1811, prevented it. 



9 

upon felling some trees and levelling the ground for that purpose, 
several of the coins were discovered; but Mrs. Thomas could 
not tell whether any of the Greek coins in this first batch were 
found at Cruckbarrow Hill*, and I should think that they, like 
the others of that class in the second batch, probably were found 
at The White Ladies. 

There is an account in the " Archaeologia " of 1846 f 
relative to Greek coins having been found on the site of a 
Roman villa at Acton Scott, near Church Stretton in Shrop- 
shire, and the villa from this circumstance is attributed to the 
time of Ostorius. This strongly corroborates the case in ques- 
tion, since The White Ladies ; the supposed fort of Ostorius in 
Britannia Square, and the supposed Eoman iron works at 
Cinder Point, on the bank of the Severn, are all in a line with 
each other. Under all the circumstances stated, it seems not 
improbable that The White Ladies is the site of the Koman 
governor's house, and that it was so occupied from the time 
of Ostorius downwards through many generations, the Koman 
coins found there appearing to indicate such a continuous 
occupation. There also is a road from Worcester, called Port- 
field's Road, which begins at the foot of LowesmoorJ, and runs by 
Harbour Hill§ and Portfield's Farm towards Elbury Hill, &c. 
Its name shows that this was a Roman port, or military way||. 

Having thus detailed all the facts that I could glean, relative 
to the case, it becomes necessary to enter a little into the ques- 
tion as to the truth of the finding of such interesting Greek 
coins at Worcester. The objection, as I understood it, was, that 
such coins had not been found so far inland in England. We 
will, therefore, argue first as to the truth of the finding ; and 
secondly, as to the reasonableness of it, drawn from the fact of 
its having occurred in the line of the operations of Ostorius. 

* See title " Bevere Island," as to a Greek silver coin supposed to have 
been found there. A coin of the Consulate was found at the Castle Hill as 
will be stated in its place. 

+ Vol. xxxi., No. 2, pp. 339 to 345. 

I See hereinafter as to this name. 

§ See as to this name in the accounts of Hagley, Hindlip, and Malvern. 

|| The word "port" also means an enclosed place, for sale and purchase, 
a market. See Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. ii., p. 550. 



10 

Now, with respect to the finding of the first batch, I would 
ask, is it at all probable that some unknown person did, from 
time to time, deceive the late Mr. Ingram, through the agency 
of the workmen; or that the workmen themselves did from 
time to time deceive him with these remarkable coins. And 
with respect to the second batch, is it at all likely that such 
person, or some other unknown person, did, thirty-one years 
after the death of Mr. Ingram, find out that Captain and Mrs. 
Thomas were going to have a drain made in the front of their 
house, and took that opportunity to deceive them through the 
agency of the workmen; or that the workmen themselves 
deceived them with such curious coins. And again, is it at all 
probable that a numismatist would have practised such a 
deception, or rather such a chain of deceptions, unless to support 
some favourite theory ; but do we find that any theory was 
advanced upon the subject? In fact, the first batch of coins 
appears to have remained many years in the possession of the 
late Mr. Ingram, and afterwards in that of Mrs. Thomas, without 
being particularly noticed, and their peculiar character was not 
even dwelt upon until I submitted them to the numismatists, as 
before stated; although, had I been earlier aware of their 
peculiar character, I should, in the first edition of this work, 
have brought them forward as an additional proof of my state- 
ment, relative to the supposed Fort of Ostorius, in Bri- 
tannia Square, and the supposed Roman iron works at Cinder 
Point. 

Another objection has been raised, which is, that the coins 
may have belonged to a collector, or collectors, and that they 
were some time or other buried, either by design, during civil 
commotions, or by accident, and afterwards dug up again, from 
time to time, in the manner before stated. Now it possibly 
might have been so, but in that case they must have been buried 
in various places. It also is possible that the late Mr. Ingram 
may have collected some of the first batch of coins from various 
sources, and added them to those which he said were dug up 
at The White Ladies and Cruckbarrow Hill ; and in that case 
the question is, whether the first batch of Greek coins were part 
of those which were dug up at either of those places. The 



11 

second batch of coins, however, is much more satisfactory, as 
they were the subject of investigation as soon as found, and all 
of them appear to have been either Greek or Koman. 

With respect to the locality itself, in Nash's " History," Vol. i., 
p. 209, it is stated that the Nunnery of St. Mary Magdalen, at 
Whistone, is now called The White Ladies, and that Whiston, 
or White-stone, is called from a white stone or cross erected 
there ; and that in William the Conqueror's time this stone was 
pulled down, and used to build a lavatory for the monks of 
St. Mary*. In Green's " History of Worcester," Vol. i., it is 
stated that "a mile being measured northward from the end of 
the High Street, a stone pile, with carvings, was erected at 
the mile's end, which was called the White Stonef, and gave 
name to a district or tithing without the city, called Whit- 
stones to this day." 

Having thus pretty well exhausted the subject, both pro and 
con, relative to The White Ladies' coins, we must now refer to 
the account of the remarkable find of Greek coins at the site 
of the Eoman Villa at Acton Scott, in Shropshire, mentioned 
at p. 9. It is observable that Acton Scott lay in the range of 
Ostorius's operations as well as Worcester, and the forts which 
he constructed on the Severn are said to have run from 
Uriconium, Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury, to Worcester and 
Gloucester];. This goes far to prove that the coins found at the 
one place would naturally correspond with those found at the 
other. In conclusion, I shall beg leave to quote what Mrs. 
Frances Stackhouse Acton has said, at the end of her very 
interesting account relative to the relics and coins found at 
Acton Scott. 

" The building fronted the south, and stood on a bank, at the 
foot of which runs a small stream. The walls were formed 
of the sandstone of the country, laid in soil, except at the 
angles and terminations, where mortar was used. They were 

* Heming's Chart, pp. 342, 343 ; and Thomas's " Worcester Cathedral," 
A., p. 21. 

f Or Whitestan, ibid. 

J See further as to these forts, under the head Eycknield Street. 



12 

twenty inches in height, and were not sunk below the floors 
of the hypocausts; they varied in thickness from two feet 
three inches to eighteen inches, and were level at top. There 
was no indication of the superstructure, except that a large 
quantity of travertine, with mortar attached, and many 
fragments of tiles, with patterns rudely scored upon their 
surface, were found in the soil; and I. have since seen that 
the Roman lighthouse within Dover Castle, which is said to 
have been the work of Ostorius, is built of travertine, flint, 
with a great deal of mortar, and courses of tiles at intervals, 
bearing patterns on them very similar to those found here. 
As Ostorius, according to the relation of history, erected a 
line of forts on the Severn, and spent some time in conquering 
the inhabitants of Shropshire and Herefordshire, the coincidence 
is not without interest. 

" In the soil were found six Greek coins : one of Neapolis, 
two of Smyrna, a rare one of Andros, one Egyptian, and one of 
Parium, in Mysia. 

" No well authenticated discovery of Greek coins has been 
recorded as having occurred in England, and some doubt of 
the fact which I have stated has been expressed. The labourers 
employed had, however, all worked for me for more than twenty 
years; they had nothing to gain by imposition, and from the 
long-established custom of bringing all curiosities to me, I am 
sure if one of them had posseseed such coins, I should have 
had them before. I have no suspicion that they could have 
been placed where they were found by any other person. 

" We have evidence of the presence of Roman soldiers 
during the erection of the villa, and it is related that before 
Claudius visited Britain, he had employed troops to subdue 
some insurrections of the Lycians and Rhodians, and had 
restored some Princes of Asia Minor to their kingdoms, who 
had been unjustly dispossessed by his predecessors; and may 
we not, therefore, account for the discovery of these coins by 
supposing that they may have been brought to England by 
soldiers who had previously been in the East? I believe 
their date will justify this supposition. I am indebted to the 



13 

kindness of Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, for a descrip- 
tion of these coins." 

But to return to Worcester. Upon sinking a well, in the year 
1844, at the house No. 12, in High Street, belonging to Dr. 
James Nash, there was found, at a depth of about eighteen feet, 
a small bronze figure of a female, with one leg close behind the 
other, a wreath or chaplet round her head, her right hand at her 
mouth, and her left grasping herself behind. This figure, the 
property of Dr. James Nash, is two inches and seven-tenths long. 
The limbs are much corroded, and it has very little patina upon 
it. The Central Committee of the British Archaeological Asso- 
ciation, before whom it was exhibited, consider it to be of Boman 
workmanship*. Similar small Koman statues of Mercury, Mars, 
Ceres, and Apollo, were dug up at Exeter in July 1778, the 
height of the largest not exceeding four inches and a half. 
These were considered to be penates, or household godsf. Several 
penates have also been found at Cirencester]; . 

With respect to who this little image represents, it is possible 
that the following extract from a work entitled " Mystagogus 
Poeticus, or the Mvses Interpreter," &c, by Alexander Boss, 
third edition, 1653 or 1655, p. 148, may throw some light upon 
the subject. 

" Angerona was the goddesse of silence at Borne, as Harpo- 
crates was the god of silence in Egypt §; she was so called 
from Angina, the squinzie, which causeth silence, and which 
she had power to send and cure, or she was so called ab ango- 
ribus, from curing the anguishes and pains of body and mind, 
and was worshipped in the chappell and on the altar of Volupia 
the goddesse of pleasure,- to show that they who with patience 
and silence endured the paines and anguishes, at last attained 
to great pleasure ; her feasts were called Angeronalia, kept 
about the middle of December; she was painted with a cloth 

* See " Archaeological Journal," Vol. ii., p. 74. 
+ Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary," title " Exeter." 
j See the work entitled " Illustrations of the Remains of Roman Art in 
Cirencester," published 1850, p. 111. 

§ He is represented with his finger on his lip. 



14= 

about her mouth, and was called the goddesse of (3ov\rj<; ical 
tcaipwvy of counsell and occasions, because a wise man should 
be careful of his tongue, counsells and occasions, or of the 
time*." 

See further as to Angerona in the Memoir of M. Sichel, 
Revue Archeologique, at Paris, 8vo., 1846, vol. hi., pp. 224-327, 
364-37 1. This author has figured one as the head of a stylus, 
or acus crinalis, in p. 369, and others in PI. 51, Nos. 1, 2. But 
in Vol. iv. of the same work, published in 1847, p. 20 and fol- 
lowing, and p. 140, M. Letronne denies that they represent 
Angerona at all. 

It is worthy of remark that all the figures represented in the 
above work exhibit a position of the hands corresponding to the 
figure in question, yet they have not the one leg behind the 
other ; therefore it is pretty clear that the latter is meant for a 
recumbent figure, and it is depicted as such in the woodcut here 
given, of the actual size. 




Under all the circumstances, however, the case appears to 
require further investigation by antiquaries, as there may still be 
some question as to whether these figures represent Angerona or 
not. 

Camden, in his " Britannia f," says, " Worcester was 
probably founded by the Romans when they built cities, at 
proper intervals, on the east side of the Severn, to check the 
Britons on the other side of the river. It formerly boasted 
Roman walls. It has now a tolerably strong wall." 

* Macrob. L. i. ; Sat. c. 10 ; Kosin. L. ii., c. 19, &c, L. iv., c. 1 ; Alex, ab 
Alex. ; Gen. dier. L. iv. ; Plin., Festus, Turnebus, &c. 
+ Vol. ii., p. 352. Edition 1790. 



15 

In Britton's "History and Antiquities of Worcester Cathedral*," 
it is stated that " Dr. Stukeley, who appears to have visited 
the city and several other places in this part of England, in 
1721, and afterwards published an account of his antiquarian 
researches in his ' Itinerarium Curiosum,' says, no doubt but 
this was a Eonian city, yet we could find no remains but a 
place in it called Sudbury, which seems to retain in its name 
some memorial of that sortf." To this Mr. Britton added, 
This place is now called Sidbury — evidently a corruption of 
Southbury, or borough. Since Camden, Stukeley, and Green 
wrote their respective works, a vast mound of earth — the keep 
of the ancient Norman castle, on the south side of the Cathe- 
dral, has been entirely taken away, and some Roman antiquities 
were found, in 1833, at or near its base, viz., an urn or jug of 
red earth, with a handle ; coins of Vespasian, Caligulaj, Nero, 
Tiberius, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, &c. ; and in a field near 
Upper Deal was discovered another Roman urn, containing 
twenty copper coins of Carausius. — The real extent of the 
ancient castle cannot now be ascertained ; but the lofty 
mound called the keep, with its ditches, &c, occupied an area 
of between three and four acres. The apex of the keep mound 
measured more than eighty feet above the high-water mark of 
the Severn, which flowed close to its western base§." 

The above discoveries at the Castle Hill were also noticed in 
the " Gentleman's Magazine," Vol. i., No. 1, new series for 
January 1st, 1834 ; and, in addition, it is therein stated that in 
about the same level as the coins therein mentioned, " were dis- 
covered a well, curiously quoined with stone, and remains of 
buildings, which plainly show that the spot was occupied before 
its artificial elevation for the purpose of forming the donjon 
keep of Worcester Castle during the middle ages." 

This hill was composed of sand and gravel, with sandstone 
foundations as outworks, and Mr. Eaton, who purchased it, and 
had it removed, has, from time to time, obtained a great many 

* Page 4. The work was published in 1835. 

+ Bishop Lyttleton was also of that opinion. 

| Not Caligula, but Augustus. 

§ It had the shape of a cone barrow. 



16 

more Roman coins and other relics out of strata of blackish earth, 
which lay in places principally under, but sometimes also in the 
hill. I have seen these coins and relics, and they clearly show 
that the elevation in question was thrown up (partly, at least,) 
either by the later Romans, upon an old Roman locality, or by the 
Saxons, Danes, or Normans ; and that the black stratum which 
contained the coins was the ancient surface of the ground, which 
had been previously occupied by the Romans*. The hill and its 
ramparts and fosse are delineated in a map of the city, as it stood 
at the time of the great battle, in 1651. 

The Roman coins collected by Mr. Eaton at this locality 
amount to between eighty and ninety in number. The following 
is a list of those made out. 

Augustus 1 in number. 

Tiberius 1 

Claudius 1 7 ■ Three of them are good. 

Nero 1 A very fine coin. 

Vespasian 2 • One rather fine. 

Titus 1 Bather good. 

Hadrian 1 

Antoninus Pius 1 

Faustina 1 1 A beautiful coin. 

Diva Faustina 1 

Marcus Aurelius 1 Obverse good. 

Julia Mamaea 1 The like. 

Gordian III 1 

Posthumus 1 

Victorinus 3 

Claudius II 2 

Tetricus 3 

Aurelian 1 — 

Maximian 1 

Carausius .......... 5 Obverse of two rather good. 

Allectus 1 

Constantine 1 Reverse rather fine. 

Urbs Roma 1 

Valens 1 ■ 

Gratian 3 

Focas 1 

* Part of the hill, probably, was formed of the materials excavated when the 
fosse was made, which ran from the hill to near where Edgar's Tower now 
stands. 






17 

And four or five caked together in a mass of oxidation. Also a 
silver coin with two portraits on the obverse, one partially behind 
the other (which is said to have arisen from a second stroke with 
the die). The reverse exhibits a horse galloping towards the left ; 
it is of the latter part of the Consulate*. There was also found in 
the same place half a Saxon silver penny of iEthelred II. f, con- 
taining the hand of Providence on the reverse. A very fine and 
perfect silver coin of Cnut. Obverse — The head of the king, with 
the sceptre : legend, CNVT REX. Reverse — The Saxon cross, 
with the inscription, ELWINE ON WIHR, meaning that Elwine 
in Worcester was the mint-master. Portions of another coin of 
Cnut. Obverse— Head of the monarch, with CNVT RECX. 
Reverse— LEOFWI [N] E ON LVN ( ) London ;— and a silver 
coin of Eadgar. 

Likewise a silver coin and half another of one of the Henrys. 
A silver coin of one of the Edwards, and another of Charles the 
First ; several Irish and other copper farthings of the latter 
monarch, and Irish copper coins of James the Second ; also coins 
of several other English monarchs ; various tradesmens' and 
abbey copper tokens ; also Scottish coins and Nuremberg tokens, 
which no doubt were brought here in the civil wars, in Charles's 
time. These latter coins are very frequently found in and about 
the City. 

But to return to the Roman relics. The rest of the Roman 
coins found in the hill are either so decayed or so worn that I can- 
not decipher them ; but the principal part have the iron crown. 
The latter coins in the list tend to show that the hill 
probably was thrown up, principally, at least, in the time 
of the later Romans; perhaps partly by Constantius and 
Constantine, and partly afterwards, to strengthen the south side 
of the City, and to communicate with the Kempsey camp, where 
a memorial of Constantine has been found. 

The other interesting relics which Mr. Eaton collected at the 
hill, he has kindly allowed me to make drawings of. The principal 

* In the first edition, I stated that it probably was a Greek colonial one. 
+ This was cut through, and each half doubtless passed as a halfpenny. 

C 



18 

part of them are seen in the accompanying Plate L, all of the 
actual size, except the celt, urn, and bell. 

No. 1. — An ancient British bronze celt, found in black soil 
within the base of the hill. It is four inches long, and one and 
two-eighths wide, and one inch thick in the centre. It has four 
parallel indents on each side. The greatest part of the loop is 
broken off, and part of the head. Several of the celts engraved 
in the first volume of Camden, page ccvi., resemble the one in 
question in many respects, except that they have not any of the 
indents. 

No. 2. — A Roman urn or jug. Nine inches and a half higb, 
twenty-four inches in circumference round the middle, ten inches 
and a half round the foot, eight inches round the narrowest part 
of the neck, and eleven inches and a half round the mouth. It 
is in the finest state of preservation, and was found about sixteen 
or eighteen feet deep in the hill, and about a third of the way up 
it. There are several nearly resembling it in Montfaucon's work 
on Grecian and Roman Antiquities, Vol. hi., Part I. 

Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.— Roman brass fibula? or 
brooches-. Eight are of the bow shape, but of different patterns, 
and the other is circularf . The acus is entire to those numbered 
3 and 10. Fragments of the acus of most of the others are also in 
the collection. The fibula, No. 3, is very large, and weighs 
nearly an ounce and a half. It looks something like a Roman 
galley, and has a single moulding round the edge, a double one 
along the front (which is the lower side of the drawing), and a 
dotted one along the middle. The front view is given of the 
fibula, No. 6, with the fragment of the acus appearing behind. 
There are several patterns of fibulae in Montfaucon's work}, but 
none exactly like these in question. The whole were found in 
the black stratum under the hill, the largest one near the outside 
of it. 

* Vide general observations relative to fibulae, in the account of Kempsey. 

+ It is possible that this fibula is Anglo-Saxon, as it corresponds with types 
of that period. The peasantry, in my younger days, used to wear rather 
similar ones made of pewter as shirt brooches. 

\ Vol. iii., Part I., p. 46, &c. 



Hau Lp.1% 




J.Basir 



-lus frvrru ffoe Ca<rtle Mil, Worcester. 






19 

Nos. 12 and 13. — Two views of a pair of bronze tweezers, 

No. 14. — An oblong four-sided cast brass bell ; it had a clapper 
appended when found, which afterwards fell off. The two sides 
of the bell are one inch and two-eighths wide at the top, and two 
inches and three-eighths at the bottom ; the two ends are six- 
eighths of an inch wide at the top, and one inch and seven-eighths 
at the bottom. It stands upon four feet, and the hole through 
the handle is five-eighths of an inch in diameter. 

No. 15. — The brass clapper belonging to No. 14. 

There is another bell exactly like the above-mentioned, except 
that it is a little smaller and less worn. These bells were found 
in the black stratum under the hill. 

In Montfaucon's work- are engravings of Grecian and Roman 
bells of several shapes, and one exactly corresponding with these 
in question. In his account of them, he says the Greeks and 
Romans had sometimes small bells at their doors ; that such bells 
were often used for other purposes ; that they were, for instance^ 
hung to the necks of horses, oxen, and sheep ; that they were 
used, according to Lucian, in houses, to call up the inmates in the 
morning ; that those persons who went round the fortifications of 
the towns carried them ; and that they were put at the doors of 
temples. 

The bell in question is probably either Roman, Roman-British, 
or Anglo-Saxon. 

A four-sided bell was found in the bog of Glenade, in the county 
of Leitrimf. 

A small Roman cone-shaped bronze bell, standing on four feet, 
was found at Silchester. It is engraved in the " Journal of the 
Archaeological Institute J." 

There is, in the British Museum, a very interesting collection 
of small bronze cone-shaped bells of various sizes, from Nimrud, 
presented by Mr. Layard in 1851. 



* Vol. iii., Part I., page 106. 
+ See " Archaeologia," Vol. xxvii., p. 400. 

I Vol. viii., p. 245. Also, see their " Proceedings at Norwich," p. 80, 
relative to bells of the Anglo-Saxon and early Irish period. 



20 

The custom of hanging bells on horses is alluded to by the 
Prophet Zechariah*. 

No. 16. — An old brass key, with two small niches in the ward, 
and a pipe holef. 

No. 17. — A brass pin, an inch and a half long, and the eighth 
of an inch thick, with a whitish bead head, rather decayed ; lozenge- 
shaped indents on the upper half of the pin, and a double point. 

No. 18. — A large bead of common, darkish glass, two inches 
and five-eighths round, and the hole three-eighths of an inch in 
diameter. 

Likewise, a black touchstone, with a ring ; a brass seal, en- 
graved with a lion rampant ; fragments of a plain amber ring ; a 
brass medal, with the story of Cephalus and Procris on it ; old 
spades, &c. These spades and other relics which appear to be 
the most modern, Mr. Eaton says, were found at or near the top 
of the hillj. 

The Castle Hill evidently underwent considerable alterations 
from time 'to time, according to the modes of warfare of the 
different ages; and the sandstone foundations which were dis- 
covered in or near the base, no doubt were of various periods. 

Some part of the top of the hill may have been made out of the 
excavated mass of sand and gravel, upon building the crypt of the 
Cathedral, or some other ecclesiastical edifice ; and I am rather 
strengthened in this conjecture by a diamond-shaped piece of ruby- 
coloured glass having been found in the hill. 

As the urn or jug, No. 2, was discovered about a third of the 
way up the hill, and about sixteen or eighteen feet deep, from the 
side horizontally towards the centre, this goes to prove that part 
of the mound in question was made by the later Romans, unless 
we can believe that the urn or jug was thrown up by the Saxons, 
Danes, or Normans, along with the original surface, in the 
manner before suggested. 

* See Chap. xiv. v. 20, and Dr. Adam Clarke's commentary thereon. 

+ It is difficult to ascertain the age of keys, as those of the Roman and later 
times very much correspond. 

I In the former edition I gave an account of a brass locket, or medal, found 
there. I have since discovered that it is of a comparatively modern date. 



21 

A similarly indented celt to that found at the Castle Hill is 
engraved in the ,; Archseologia," Vol. xvi., PI. 54, No. 2, and 
is described in page 362. It is there stated that a ring of 
the same metal was attached to it, on which was a bead of jet, 
and that it was found near Tadcaster, in Yorkshire. The glass 
bead above mentioned may have been similarly attached to the 
celt in question. In the work entitled " Old England*" it is 
stated that " the weapons of the ancient Britons show their 
acquaintance with the casting of metals. Their axe-heads, called 
celts, are composed of ten parts of copper and one of tin ; their 
spear-heads, of six parts of copper and one of tin. Moulds 
for spear-heads have been frequently found in Britain and 
Irelandf." 

Of late years, much has been written on the uses to which 
these singular implements were applied. The preferable opinion 
appears to be that they served as hammers, axes, knives, chisels, 
gouges, and tomahawks, or missiles, according to their respective 
shapes and materials. 

The late Sir Samuel Bush Meyrick considered celts " to have 
been of foreign manufacture, brought to this island by stranger 
merchants, perhaps the Phoenicians, and purposely fashioned by 
them in imitation of the ruder stone implements used by our 
British ancestors, in order to secure a market by meeting their 
wants and tastes j." 

Of the double-pointed pin, found at the Castle Hill, I gave a 
woodcut in the first edition of this work (p. 84) ; since that time 
I have made numerous inquiries as to its probable use, but 
without success. Instruments something like it (but with an eye 
or hole through the head, instead of the knob) are engraved in 
" Illustrations of the Remains of Boman Art in Cirencester, the 
site of ancient Corinium§." They are described in that work as 



* Part L, pp. 22, 23. 

+ See the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. iv., p. 1, &c. 
and p. 327, &c, as to various forms and moulds of celts, 
j Sec " Archaeologia," Vol. xxx., p. 493. 
§ By Professor Buckman and C. H. Newmarch, Esq., 1850, p. 105. 



22 

nail instruments, — "the divided lower extremities serving to 
extract dirt from beneath the nails, whilst the hole in the top 
would allow it to be suspended or tied up, perhaps with other 
articles of a similar nature*." 

The bronze tweezers from the Castle Hill are most probably 
either Roman or Anglo-Saxon; for one of the Cirencester relics, 
figured in the above-mentioned work, p. 105, is a pair of tweezers' 
with what is therein considered a nail instrument attached. The 
following is the description given: — "A pair of well-formed 
tweezers, like our modern instrument of the name, has an iron 
axis through its rounded top, upon which the nail instrument 
freely moves ; this is an exceedingly simple instrument, and, 
like all of its kind from Corinium, is simply ornamented with 
engraved lines or circles." 

Now it is worthy of remark, that the Castle Hill tweezers have 
a bronze axis through the rounded top, upon which probably was 
attached an instrument similar to the one mentioned above, 
which may have been either a nail instrument or a comb-cleaner, 
or both. 

In the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. viii., 
p. 188, a very similar pin to the one in question (with a head of 
green stone) is figured, and described by Mr. Buckman as having 
lately been found at Cirencester. 

There are some Roman tweezers in the British Museum. It is 
also observable that in a rather scarce work, published by 
Thomas Browne, M.D., in 1658, and entitled, " Hydriotaphia, 
Urn-burial, or a Discourse of the Sepulchrell Urnes lately found 
in Norfolk," in a field of Old Walsingham, the author, in pp. 14, 
23, refers to brazen nippers to pull away hair, as found in the 
urns. 

In the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. v., pp. 
235, 236, there is a lithographic engraving, and also an account 
of Roman tweezers of bronze with an ear-pick appended, found 
at Chesterford. — Amongst numerous Anglo-Saxon sepulchral relics 
found at Little Wilbraham, Co. Cambridge, exhibited by the Hon. 

* One with an eye was found at Droitwich with Eonian relics, and then 
thought to have been the acus of a fibula. See under " Droitwich." 



23 

R. C. Neville at the Society of Antiquaries, 14th January, 1852, 
was a pair of bronze tweezers, with an ear-pick attached to it. 

Before leaving the Castle Hill, I must notice that the workmen 
found several geuera of recent species of sea shells in the native 
gravel bed under the hill, which are in Mr. Eaton's possession, 
namely, Turritella, Murex Erinaceus, Buccinum Macula, and 
Purpura Lapillus. These correspond with some of the several 
genera of recent species of marine shells which I procured, 
through the workmen, from the bottom of the gravel beds at 
Kempsey, Powick, and Bromwich Hill, near this city, all 
which latter shells, Sir R. I. Murchison, has noticed in his 
work on the Silurian System*, in proof that an ancient arm of 
the sea formerly divided England from Wales. Since that 
work was published I have obtained Turritella and Cardium 
from Bromwich Hill; Purpura Lapillus and Turbo Littoreus 
from Kempsey ; and Turritella from the gravel bed at Northwick ; 
which last place lies up the Severn, within about a mile of this 
city. 

In the vale between Worcester and Elbury Hill is a farm called 
" Port Fields Farm," in the parish of Claines; the road from it 
to Worcester (which runs partly in the parish of St. Martin and 
partly in Claines) is called the " Port Fields Road." This name, 
as before statedf, proves it to have been a Roman port, or 
military way. The owner of the farm, Mr. John Trevis, informed 
me that it is called by the above-mentioned name in the earliest 
of his title deeds, which run back to the time of Henry VIII. 
About fifty or sixty years ago it got the nick-name of " Skelton's 
Barn," from the corpse of a person who committed suicide 
having been found in the barn. The road runs on eastward from 
this farm, by the " Virgin's Tavern," between Leppard and 
Elbury Hills, and towards Warndon and the Trench Woods. 

A supposed Roman hypocaust was discovered at the hill, by 
Sidbury ; the particulars of which are as follow : — 

In January 1843, as the workmen of Mr. Holland, builder, 
were making an excavation for a building yard, in the marl bank, 

* Vide Vol. i., pp. 532, 533, 534, 554. 
+ See p. 9. 



just above Sidbury Place, on the south side of the London 
Road, opposite the Fort Royal, an ancient square underground 
apartment was discovered. Its walls consisted of bricks and 
tiles, in alternate courses, set in marly clay ; the south-east 
corner being about seven feet high. There was a double course 
of tiles between each course of bricks in the walls to the height 
of about three feet four inches from the floor, and then they ran 
in single courses of tiles and bricks to the top*. The foot of the 
high and solid marl bank was excavated in a very square and 
even manner, to encase the walls of the apartment. These walls, 
which were eleven inches thick, had been subjected to considerable, 
although not excessive heat (as they were not vitrified); their 
interior was quite black, and the marl against them much pul- 
verized by heat. The north and south sides of the apartment 
were each ten feet wide, and the east and west sides eleven feet. 
The entrance was at the north side, next the road, and appeared 
to have been of the whole width of the apartment, except that 
the wall was nine inches thicker at each side of the entrance, 
forming square sections of pillars which were two feet four inches 
broad. The floor was paved with a double course of bricks which 
were very black. The under course did not reach to the walls by 
about nine inches on the east, west, and south sides, the inter- 
vening* part being marl ; but the upper course of bricks, covered 
the whole of the floor, and the flooring came out beyond the 
entrance about two feet six inches, and terminated at a slight 
trench. The marl under the floor was also much pulverized by 
the heat to which it had been subjected. The apartment was only 
three yards distant from the road, and the floor was upon a level 
with the road, or nearly so. The covering of the apartment had 
fallen in, perhaps ages back, and the whole was filled up with 
bricks, tiles, and earth. In the soil near the western side of the 
apartment, but unconnected with it, a fragment of a sandstone 
Gothic moulded shaft was found, and also a piece of blue lime- 
stone Gothic tracery ; both in the early English style. A Dutch 
copper coin, with the name Hollandea upon it, was also discovered 

* These alternate courses very much resembled those in the Roman pharos 
at Dover Castle. See « Old England," Vol. i., p. 27. 



25 

between the marl and the western wall, to which place it had 
probably slipped from the upper part of the bank, as the workmen 
were demolishing that wall, it being evidently of a much later 
date than the apartment ; and foreign copper coins, principally 
Dutch and German, are frequently dug up in and about this city. 

The bricks of the walls and of the floor of the apartment were 
nine inches long, four inches and a half wide, and two inches 
thick ; and the tiles in the walls were twelve inches long, six 
inches and a half wide, and about three quarters of an inch thick. 
There were also some bricks in the walls which were only one 
inch and a half thick. Upon first seeing the apartment, I was 
inclined to think that it was an ancient military oven, erected 
outside the walls of the City, at a short distance (about 220 yards) 
from Sidbury gate, to supply such troops with bread as might 
be stationed on the adjoining heights, now called the Fort 
Koyal, &c. ; but the late Harvey Eginton, Esq., architect, having 
examined the apartment with me, suggested that it might have 
been a Roman hypocaust ; and its height, situation, and ancient 
appearance, strongly favoured that opinion. 

I was informed that there was a flue-hole through the top of 
the wall, at the south-east corner of the apartment, at which a 
flue might have passed to warm the rooms above ; but the top 
of that corner was broken down by the workmen before I saw it. 
Whatever other flue-holes there might have been were destroyed 
when the covering fell in, in days of yore, which brought down all 
the upper part of the w T alls, except the corner in question*. 

The two fragments of stone, in the early English style of 
architecture, most probably were part of a chapel, which 
must have formerly stood hereabouts ; for Leland, who made 
his " Itinerary " in the reign of Henry VIII. , soon after 
the dissolution of the religious houses, states, — " There is a 
fayre suburb without Sudbury Gate. There is in this suburb a 
Chappel of St. Godwald. What this St. Godwald was I could 
not certainly learne. Some sayd he was a bishop." 

At the top of the height, above the spot in question, called 

* The above particulars I communicated to the Worcester Journals, in 
January 1843. 



26 

Green Hill (which lies opposite the Fort Royal or Park), there 
was, till lately, a considerable mound of earth, most probably the 
site of the fort erected by King Stephen on the London Road, 
when he laid siege to Worcester Castle. It may, however, have 
been much more ancient. The other fort which he built was 
on the Bath Road : the mound on which it stood has also been 
removed. 

In an old trench at the top of the ridge, between the supposed 
hypocaust and the mound, an ancient British coin was dug up 
by Mr. Holland's workmen, and also Roman coins of Alexander 
Severus, Gallienus, Victorious, and Tetricus the younger. The 
ancient British coin is of common type, and I am informed that 
it cannot be appropriated to any particular chief, nor as yet to 
any particular district. The obverse of it probably represents a 
head, and its reverse exhibits a horse galloping towards the left. 
(See the woodcut.) This is the only ancient British coin which 
has come to my knowledge as having been found at Worcester. 




Some of the tiles found in the supposed hypocaust have a 
groove or channel across them. Several of these tiles I exhibited 
at a meeting of the Archaeological Institute. Some of the 
members considered that they were Roman roofing and paving 
tiles, and that the grooves or channels might possibly have been 
made to receive either the recurve of Roman flanged tiles, or to 
carry off the water, or they might have been to enable workmen 
to break them in half when needed*. The mortar or cement 
in which they were set still adhered to them, containing much 
pounded brick, and this was considered a further proof of the 
workmanship being Roman. In the " Journal of the Archaeo- 
logical Institute!," these tiles are described as Anglo-Roman ; and 

* In this latter case, they might either have been paving tiles or wall tiles. 
+ Vol. vii., pp/302, 303. 



27 

it is further added, — " The fragments exhibited presented some 
unusual peculiarities of fabrication, some of these tiles having 
been deeply grooved, in a manner differing from the scoring of 
common occurrence, serving to retain the mortar firmly : another 
tile, apparently for roofing, was formed with a knob at top, as 
a means of attachment. Lyon, in the ' History of Dover 
Castle,' speaks of wall- tiles in the Roman pharos, formed 
with hemispherical knobs at the angles ; but this contrivance 
is unusual." 

The fragments of the tiles in question are so imperfect, that 
it is impossible to say decidedly whether the channels ran along 
or across them ; the former was most probably the case, as they 
are in the middle of the lengthwise centre of the tiles, but would 
not be quite in the middle crosswise*. 

As Sidbury, or Southburyf , lies on the south side of Worcester, 
it is probable that it was so called from its position in regard to 
the City. There is a Saxon charter, dated a.d. 963, in MS., 
Cotton, Tiberius A. XIII. J, which seems to establish this view. 
It is a grant from Bishop Oswald to Cynethegn, of two and a 
half manses or hides of land, at Oddingley, in Worcestershire. 
The charter goes on to say, " Thonne is ealles thaes landes 
the oswold bisceop bocath cynethegne, thrinde healf hid and 
VI. seceras at haranlea and XL. secera be eastan Lawern, 
and se haga be suthan byrig se is XII. gerda lang and IX. 
gerda brand," &c. 

That is, in English, " This is the whole of the land which 
Bishop Oswald gave to Cynethegn, two and a half hides, and 
six acres at Harley, and forty acres east of Lawern, and the 
enclosure by the south beorh, [or borough,] which is twelve yards 
long and nine yards broad." 

* See the " Archaeologia," Vol. xxx., Appendix, p. 537, relative to channelled 
bricks found in Roman foundations at Thornham, near Maidstone, in Kent. 

+ Leland, Habingdon, and others, wrote it " Sudbury," and it is so spelled 
in Saxton and Speeds' Map of 1010, and also in the map in " Boscobel." 

I Printed in " Cod. Diplom.," No. 507, which work also mentions Suthbyrig 
(Sudbury), in Suffolk, Nos. 685, 699. 



28 

In a survey of the Forest of Feckenham, 28th Edward I.*, 
the name is spelled Southburi. There are frequent instances 
of towns similarly designated on account of their position. 
Sidbury, or Chidbury Hill, in Wiltshire — a vast oval 
fortification, encompassed with two deep ditches — lies south of 
Everley. (Gough's " Camden," Vol. i., p. 158.) There are 
also Sidbury in Devon and Salop, Sudbury in Derbyshire and 
Suffolk, and Southbury (Chapelry) in Kent. In the " Worcester 
Miscellany " for 1829, it is contended that Sidbury, like Silbury 
Hill, in Wiltshire, is of ancient British origin, and derived from 
the Keltic word Sul, the Sun ; and that the adjoining heights 
(now called the Fort Royal, or Park) were dedicated to the 
worship of Sul, or the Sun, the Keltic Apollo. This etymology, 
however, appears to be invalidated, for in early times it was 
designated as above. Still the " bury," or " burrow," most 
probably was of ancient British or Roman origin; for the 
Saxons thus distinguished the fortified places of the Britons and 
Romans. 

In September 1844, several Roman and other relics were 
found at Diglis, near Worcester, the particulars of which I com- 
municated to the Worcester journals in that month nearly as 
follows : — At the south part of the cutting, across the meadow at 
Diglis, for the Severn Navigation Lock, at the depth of about 
twenty feet in the alluvial soil, were portions of small trees, 
bushes, and hazel nuts, intermingled with fragments of stags' 
horns and bones ; a little nearer to the river, southward, at the 
depth of about twenty-five feet, portions of an oak tree; and 
still nearer the river, at the depth of about thirty feet, a great 
number of bones of the deer kind, and of short-horned cattle f 
and other animals, together with fragments of Roman urns and 
pans of red earth, and a piece of Samian ware ; a little nearer 
to the river, at the same depth, the horns and part of the skull 

* See Nash, Vol. i., Introduction, p. 65. 

t A small extinct ox, the Bos longifrons of Mr. Owen; fragments of the 
bones of which I sent to him. See the " Journal of the Archaeological 
Institute," Vol. vi., pp. 34, 35, and 127. 




29 

of a stag or red deer (Cervus elaphus), weighing twenty-one 
pounds*. Alongside of this latter relic, was part of the under- 
jaw of a horse, and a smaller antler ; also the greater part of a 
fine Roman urn, of slate-coloured 
potteryf, eight inches high, and twenty- 
six in circumference — (see the woodcut 
here represented). It seems probable 
that there were Roman or Roman British 
pottery works near to the spot in ques- 
tion, like those discovered on the border 
of the Severn at Bow Farm, in the 
parish of Ripple]; ; and it is worthy of 
remark that the Diglis pottery, both red 
and slate-coloured, exactly corresponds in character with that 
discovered in the Roman burial-ground at Kempsey[|. A coin of 
Marcus Aurelius was also found at the cutting. It appears to 
me that there was an ancient dyke at the spot, and that the rill 
of water which ran into the Severn having, in ages past, been 
diverted into another channel, the dyke became gradually filled 
up by the alluvium occasionally deposited upon the plains by the 
floods of the river, and thereby all the relics were buried at the 
great depth at which they lay ; in proof of this, it may be 
remarked that the stratum on which they rested was muddy grit, 

* The antlers of the stag, or red deer, I presented to the British Museum, 
affixed upon a block of the oak tree. 

+ Antiquarians have been in much doubt how such pottery was coloured. 
Perhaps the following extract from the "Archaeological Journal" (Vol. i. 
p. 280), relative to a communication from Mr. Edmund Tyrell Artis, 
as to a Eoman pottery-kiln discovered in the vicinity of Castor, 
in Northamptonshire, will throw some light upon the subject. The kiln 
" appears to have been used for making the bluish-black or slate-coloured 
kind of pottery, so frequently met with wherever Eoman remains are found 
in England. This colour, Mr. Artis has ascertained, was imparted to the 
potteiy by suffocating the fire of the kiln, at the time when its contents had 
reached the proper state of heat to ensure a uniform colour." Also see 
" Eemains of Eoman Art in Cirencester," pp. 78, 79, relative to how the 
colour was produced by chemical action. 

j See Eipple. 

|| See Kempsey. 



30 



such as we find at the bottom of water- courses ; and my opinion 
is, that in the Koman time the Blockhouse stream, and other 
rills from the adjacent heights, ran into the Severn at the point 
in question. In some proof of this, the black seam pointed that 
way through the whole width of the south part of the cutting. 
It would have taken an immense time for these relics to have 
been buried upon the surface of a level plain by the alluvium, at 
the depth they were ; for it will appear in the accounts of 
Pitchcroft and Ripple, that the alluvium upon the level plains 
on the borders of the Severn has only accumulated about four 
feet since the Roman time. 

Several of the fragments of the oak tree, before mentioned, 
still retain the bark. Fragments of bark also appear upon the 
oak coffin of a supposed ancient British chieftain, preserved in 
the Scarborough Museum, the particulars of which I commu- 
nicated to the Society of Antiquaries*. 

In the same year (1844), about a mile and a half below Wor- 
cester, and half a mile below the Diglis Lock, 
a bronze spear-head of very unusual shape was 
dredged up by some workmen employed in the 
improvement of the navigation of the Severn. 
It is ten inches and a half long, two inches 
and three quarters broad, and weighs 'eight 
ounces. A woodcut of it, as here repre- 
sented, was given in the " Archaeological 
Journal," Vol. ii., p. 187. It is there 
stated to be of " remarkable form and singular 
fashion, the blade being flat, and of greater 
breadth than usual ; terminating at the lower 
extremity in a shape more resembling the 
barbed head of an arrow, than the head of a 
long-handled weapon." It is figured in the 
" Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute at 
York, 1846," p. 39, plate v., fig. 4, and noticed 
in p. 34 of that work. It was also exhibited at a meeting of the 
Society of Antiquaries of London, 29th May, 1851, when a 
* Vide " Archseologia," Vol. xxx., pp. 458 to 462. 




31 

paper was read by Mr. Akerman " On some of the Weapons of 
the Celtic and Teutonic races." There is some difference of 
opinion as to the use to which this remarkable and probably 
unique spear-head was applied. Some suppose it to have been 
a war spear, others a fish spear. If it were a long-handled war 
spear, it is open to the objection that it could not have been 
withdrawn if thrust into an enemy beyond the barb ; it seems 
therefore probable that it was a missile spear. The length of 
the blade would have been an objection to it as a fish spear ; and 
Dion Cassius, Lib. lxxvi., says the Britons did not eat fish, 
although the sea abounded with them ; still, however, they may 
have caught and cured* fish as an article of barter with the 
Phoenicians and Gaulsf. 

In the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. v., 
p. 342, various forms of Greek and Eoman spears are 
represented with the amentum, or leathern thong, tied to the 
middle of the shaft, which was of assistance in throwing the 
spear; but none there delineated have the barb. And in p. 339 
of that Journal, there is a quotation made from Herodotus, who, 
in V. 49 of his work, states that the barbarians " carry bows and 
a short spear." 

In the "Art Journal," No., 156, June 1851, p. 170, there 
is copied from the " Harleian MS.," No. 603, the figure of 
an Anglo-Saxon horseman whose spear is barbed ; the head of it 
is not lengthy, like the one in question, but is short like that of 
an arrow. 

The following is a woodcut of a bronze spear-head in the British 




Museum which was purchased in London, and is noticed in the manu- 
script book entitled, " Acquisitions of Antiquities," 1847-1848, as 

* See in the " Account of Droitwich," as to the probability that the ancient 
Britons not only used salt, but made the Saltways. 

+ See a wood-cut of another spear-head, in the account of Kempsey. 



32 

follows, " Spear-head or sword ; flat, leaf-shaped blade, the edges 
turned up ; there is no ferrule, but a barbed spike to insert it into 
a shaft or handle. It is one foot two inches and a half long." — 
It will appear by the woodcut that this weapon is very narrow 
in proportion to the Worcester one. These are the only 
specimens of barbed spears which have come to my 
knowledge. 

In the year 1847, a curious leaden chest was found near 
Worcester, the particulars of which I communicated to the 
Archaeological Institute ; and the same appeared in their Journal*, 
as follows : — " At the south end of the tunnel of the Oxford, 
Worcester, and Wolverhampton railway, at Kainbow Hill, close 
by Worcester, portions of lead and wood, which apparently had 
formed a little reliquary or chest, were, in the year 1847, found by 
the excavators in a mass of earth, which fell down into the 
excavation. This box is said to have lain about eight or ten feet 
deep in the earth. It measured, taking the largest piece of lead 
as a guide, twelve inches long and seven inches broad ; it may, 
however, be questionable whether the smaller plate of lead was 
an end-piece or a plate at the top of the box. Its length exactly 
corresponds with the breadth of the largest piece. The box 
possibly may have been the depository of a heartf. The lead is 
perforated with an immense quantity of nails, by which it was 
attached to the wooden box, the thickness of which was con- 
siderable. A few days after the workmen had brought me the 
remains of the box, one of them furnished me with a small silver 
coin of Queen Mary, found, as he stated, in the mass of earth 
which had fallen down with the box; there is, however, no 
evidence that the box and the coin are of the same age." 

To which the editor of the ls Archaeological Journal " added 
as follows : — " It may deserve notice, that the Saxon coins and 
ornaments discovered in Cuerdale, as also the collection of coins 
of the Conqueror, found at Beaworth, Hants, had been deposited 
in small leaden cists. Several instances might be cited of the 

* Vol. iv., p. 149. 

+ See an account of heart-burial in a leaden pot in " Hone's Every Day 
Book and Table Book," Vol. iii., Part 2, p. 230. 



33 

interment of a human heart in such 'a receptacle, in mediaeval 
times ; and similar sepulchral deposits, of more remote antiquity, 
have been found in England. A cubical leaden cist, measuring 
eighteen inches square, was discovered in the parish of Donning- 
ton, Sussex, during the formation of the canal between the river 
Arun and Portsmouth. Within it was found enclosed a glass 
vessel, containing bones and ashes. Interments of an analogous 
character have been noticed in the north-western parts of France." 

Subsequently to the discovery of the chest*, I made repeated 
inquiries at Eainbow Hill, in order to ascertain whether any coins 
or other relics had been found there by the workmen, but without 
success. 

In the review of the first edition of this work in the " Gentle- 
man's Magazinef," it is remarked, — " There is, in our opinion, 
no necessity to hesitate in pronouncing Worcester a Roman 
station of importance, placed from an early period as a link in the 
military defences on the left or eastern bank of the Severn. 
This defensive line may be traced at a glance from Uriconium, 
Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury, on the north, through the Brano- 
vinium of Antonine, which was the Caer Brangon or Vran- 
gon of the Britons, the Saxon Wrangonceaster, softened to Wor- 
cester ; and proceeding southward to Glevum, Gloucester. Now 
these three places, exclusive of tangible remains, bear the indu- 
bitable stamp of a Roman origin in the distinctive appellation, 
' ceaster,' so commonly affixed to the Roman castra or military 
forts by the Saxons." 

Dr. Nash, in page cvii. of the appendix to his second volume, 
says : " To speak my mind freely, I do not take Worcestershire 
to be any part of the Cornavii, but of the Dobuni ; nor do I think 
the city of Worcester had a being in the Roman times, for there 
are no footsteps of any Roman ways leading to this city, nor are 
there any coins or antiquities found in any quantity}:. All 

* This chest I gave to the museum of the Archaeological Institute. 

+ For November 1840, p. 509, &c. 

J So little were the antiquities of the county known a century ago, that 
the map of Worcestershire, in Herman Moll's maps of England and Wales, 
published in 1747, is decorated round it with antiquities belonging to the 
neighbouring counties, because this county did not supply any. 

D 



34 

betwixt the Avon and the Severn was formerly thick and wild wood- 
land. The Arden of Warwickshire joined to that of Feckenham, 
in this county, which, with the forest of Ombersley, included all 
the north part of the county between the Stour and Severn, quite 
down to Worcester ; and the forest of Horewell, southward, ex- 
tended from Sudbury gate to within a mile of Tewkesbury." He 
also added : " Some have imagined that the Romans would not 
neglect so fine and navigable a river as the Severn, but would 
certainly follow the course of it from Gloucester ; but at that time 
the Severn was not navigable about Worcester, it being used 
chiefly for fishing, there being, long after the time of the Romans, 
three wears within two miles of Worcester ; Bevere, Barbourne, 
and Timberdine." 

This view, however, is disproved by the numerous Roman coins 
and relics which have been discovered in and near Worcester 
since the Doctor wrote his History. At Kempsey, not far from 
this city, in the line between it and Tewkesbury, the sites of a 
Roman camp and burial-ground have been discovered. A little 
further on, at Ripple, the site of a Roman pottery ground. In 
the parish of Ombersley the site of a Roman camp and pottery 
works have been brought to light ; and Roman relics at Droit- 
wich ; and within three miles of Worcester, on the north-west 
side, there is a place called Oldbury*, situated in the parish of St. 
John, near Broadheath and Crowneast (vulgarly called Crowsnest). 
This place has not been noticed by Dr. Nash ; but in his account 
of the parish of Halesowen, he states that the name of the place 
there called Oldbury denotes that there was a Roman camp or 
station in that localityf. 

Oldbury is a fine, open, upland situation, just such a one as the 
Romans would have selected ; it commands a full view from the 



* There is a place called Oldbury Gardens at Tewkesbury, where Roman 
coins and relics are frequently dug up ; vide Bennett's History of that place, 
page 17. Also see Notices of Tewkesbury, Oldbury, and Halesowen. 

+ Vide further notices relative to the antiquities in the neighbourhood of 
Worcester, in the subsequent account of the Western Trackway from Tewkes- 
bury, through Worcester, to Droitwich ; and in the other ancient lines of road 
to and from Worcester. 



35 

highest part, called Oldbury Hill*, of Worcester, and of Tutnall, 
Elbury, and Cruckbarrow Hills, which flank the city on the north- 
east, east, and south-east; of Bredon Hill, on the south-east; 
and of the Malvern, Old Storage, Ankerdine, Berrow, Woodbury, 
and Abberley Hills, on the south-west, west, and north-west ; and 
it appears to be the highest ground in that part between the above 
ranges. 

From what has been said, it is clear that this county was not 
so much covered with wood in the time of the Bomans as Dr. 
Nash imagined ; and the wears referred to by him upon the 
Severn may have been constructed in later times, as the Cinder 
Point iron works tend to prove that the navigation of the river 
was free during the time of the Boman dominion. 

ANCIENT BBITISH PEBIOD. 

That Worcester, or the heights on the east side of it, were 
regularly inhabited by the ancient Britons, will, I think, clearly 
appear in my subsequent description of the chain of hills from 
Cruckbarrow to Tutnall. The following remarks in relation to 
Lowesmoor may also tend to throw some light upon the 
subjectf : — 

It is stated in p. 9 that there is a place on the eastern side of 
Worcester, adjoining Port Fields Boad (which leads to Harbour, 
and Elbury Hills), called Lowesmoor. Now this name, if correct, 
indicates that ancient lowesj, or barrows, stood there. In 
Saxton and Speed's " Map of the City and County of Worcester," 
published in 1610, and in the map contained in the work called 
" Boscobel§," the part called Lowesmoor is represented as con- 
sisting almost entirely of open fields, lying on the north-east side 

* " An appellation almost always connected with Eoman occupation, and in 
this instance probably the castra sestiva, or summer quarters of the garrison 
of Worcester." See " Gentleman's Magazine " for November 1840, p. 510. 

+ Also see what has been said as to Sidbury, at p. 26. 

I Or lows. 

§ Intitled, " An exact Ground Plot of the City of Worcester as it stood 
fortified 3rd September, 1651." See the third edition of that work, published 
in 1680. 



36 

of St. Martin's Gate*. — Supposing barrows to have been there, 
the first question is, whether they belonged to the ancient Britons, 
to the Komans, or to the Anglo-Saxons ; however, it seems most 
probable they were either ancient British or Anglo-Saxon, since 
it appears that the usual manner of the Romans was to bury 
without a tumulusf. 

The next point to be discussed is the etymology of Lowesmoor. 
Was it the moor of the barrows, or the moor of a person called 
Lowe? According to Nash's " History," Vol. i., p. 203, it was 
spelled Losemore, in the time of Edward I.; and in the 19th 
" Further Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring concerning 
Charities " (p. 508), it is stated that in a deed, dated in the 
second year of Elizabeth, a piece of land, called " The Fort," is 
described as situated in Windmill Field, near Little Losemore 
and Great Losemore. In a lease, granted by the Bishop of Wor- 
cester in 1668, it is spelled Losemoore ; in another lease (1751), 
Losemore ; while a map of Worcester, by John Doharty (1741), 
has it Lowsemoor; and a map by G. Young (1779), Lowesmere. 
These are the earliest mentions of the name I have succeeded in 
discovering, and from them it appears that the etymology is 
uncertain. In the absence, however, of further evidence, it may 
reasonably be inferred, from the ancient British localities which 
surround it, that it owes its designation to the lowes or barrows 
which it contained. 

SAXON PERIOD. 

In connection with this period, there is a most interesting and 
unique Saxon gold coin of Edward the Confessor, found at Wor- 
cester, when the church of St. Clement was being taken down. 
It belonged to Thomas Henry Spurrier, Esq., of Edgbaston, near 
Birmingham, now deceased. This coin has been examined by 
some of the first numismatists in the kingdom, and is declared to 

* The map in " Boscobel " represents Frog Gate as lying near St. Martin's 
Gate. Other maps, afterwards published, give Frog Gate, hut omit its name. 
It appears, however, by " Saxton and Speed's Map," that Frogge Gate and 
Frogge Mill were near the Severn. 

+ See Notices of Kempsey and Powick. 



37 

be genuine. It is said to be the only Saxon gold coin which has 
been found*. It is in a high state of preservation, and weighs 
fifty-four grains and a quarter. On the obverse there is a quarter 
side-face portrait of the king, with a sceptre, and the inscription, 
" EDWEKD REX," in Saxon characters. On the reverse* 
there is the name of the minter, and the place where it was 
minted, as follows :— " LYFINC ON WIRING" This Wserino 
is by some supposed to mean Warwick, by others Worcester. 
(See the woodcuts of the obverse and reverse of the coin here 
represented.) Dr. Nash, in his " History f," speaking of St. 




Clement's Church, says : — " This church was built by the Saxons 
after they had fortified the city against the incursions of the 
Britons. The parish to which it belongs lies on the other side of 
the- river Severn ; and there is a monkish tradition, that it was 
begun to be built on the side of the river where the parish lies, 
but that angels, by night, took away the stones to the place where 
it now stands ; but the true reason why it was there built, was for 
its security ; that, whatever fate their houses might meet with, 
their church might be safe from the devastations of their enemies. 
It has, at the west end of it, the remains of a bulwark, and a 
gate by it, which openeth upon the Severn, above the bridge, 
called 'St. Clement's Gate.'" 

I give the above extract, because it strongly bears upon the 
subject. This ancient church was taken down about twenty-five 
years ago, and rebuilt on the other side of the river. Some 
portions of the old walls still remain, containing circular arches ; 
these, M. H. Bloxam, Esq., of Rugby, describes as early Norman. 
It appears, from his work on " Gothic Ecclesiastical Architec- 



* But see infra. 

+ Vol. ii., Appendix, p. 128. 



38 

ture," published in 1838, that there are very few specimens of 
Saxon buildings remaining in the kingdom, and that it is a 
common mistake to call all erections Saxon which contain 
circular arches. Perhaps, therefore, the whole of this church 
was early Norman, or rather of the time of Edward the Confessor, 
when Norman architecture began to be introduced. This view 
appears to be favoured by the circumstances relative to the 
finding of the coin above mentioned. Some writers state that 
the tower of this church, which was united to the city wall, was 
beaten down by the Cromwellites. In a view of the City, engraved 
in 1732, for Buck's " Views," the then bridge is represented as 
abutting close upon the old St. Clement's Church ; and in an old 
map, which probably was a reprint from that in the work called 
" Boscobel," the bridge and the city wall close to the original 




tower of the church, together with the bulwark referred to by Dr. 
Nash, are all represented. 

The following notice with respect to this church (of which see 



39 

the woodcut) appeared in the " Archaeological Journal* : " " Mr. 
Wright exhibited a drawing of part of the ruins of old St. 
Clements Church at Worcester, which was pulled down a few 
years ago when the new church of St. Clement was built. They 
have the apparent character of very early Norman work, and the 
church itself appears to have been an ancient structure. The 
arches, though in character early Norman, might be of the reign 
of Edward the Confessor, when Norman arts and customs were 
introduced rather largely into England." 

But to return to the coin. In the course of the year 1837, 
several papers appeared in the " Numismatic Quarterly Journal," 
and " Gentleman's Magazine," respecting it. The principal 
question appears to have been, whether it really was struck for 
circulation, or as a kind of medal or curiosity ; some numis- 
matists regard it as a piece struck in gold from the die of the 
penny of Edward the Confessor. 

Another point has arisen as to where this coin was minted ; 
and the question is, whether Waerinc means Warwick or Worcester. 
Green, in his History of the City, and Nash, in his History of the 
County of Worcester, have given an engraving f of a coin of 
Edward the Confessor J, with the word Warinc upon it, amongst 
the Anglo-Saxon and English coins which they say were minted 
at Worcester. It has been asserted that this word forms the 
first two syllables of the Saxon name of this city § ; on the other 
hand, it is contended that Waerinc means Warwick ; a gentleman 
of that opinion stated, in a letter to me, that Camden, " although 
a great antiquary, knew but very little about numismatics, and 



* Of the British Archaeological Association, Vol. i., pp. 261, 262. 

f In the former work, No. 10, Vol. ii., p. 113 ; and in the latter, No. 4, 
Vol. i. Intr., p. 91. 

\ Obverse — Eadward Rex. Reverse — Purcl on Waerinc. 

§ Vide Camden's " Britannia," Vol. i., p. 173, in explanation of coin, No. 29, 
in Plate 2, of Saxon coins in that work. The last-mentioned coin is one of 
Canute and contains the word Verin, which Camden has set down as Worces- 
ter : p. 175, of the first volume of that author, has also been cited in proof 
that Edward the Confessor did coin money in this city. 



40 

frequently assigned coins to the wrong rnonarchs." He gave 
some instances to that effect, and added, that " the Saxon names 
for Worcester are — Wigea, Wihr, Wir, Wiri, Wice, Wiger, Wigr, 
Wiher, Wihre, Wihri ; while the names for Warwick are Wearwi, 
Warinc, Waerhica, Verinew, Weric, Werin, and Waerinc." This 
shows that several of the Anglo-Saxon coins which Dr. Nash and 
Mr. Green have described as minted at Worcester, must have 
been minted at Warwick*. 

Camden f says: "The question whether the Saxon kings 
coined any gold is yet undetermined. The latest controversy on 
the subject between Mr. Pegge and Mr. North was not so much 
on the general question, as whether the coins produced by the 
former were genuine, which Mr. North argued they could not be, 
on account of the great deficiency in weighty." 



DANE SKINS. 

I must now advert to the very curious fact, that vestiges of 
human skin might be seen attached to the north doors of Wor- 
cester Cathedral as late as forty years ago, when those doors were 
replaced by new ones. The extraordinary spectacle I myself 
frequently saw before the doors were removed. The particulars 
of the case, and of the existence of the doors in the crypt of the 
cathedral to this day, I mentioned to Albert Way, Esq., who 
thereupon communicated a very interesting paper upon the subject 
of " Danes' Skins " to the Archaeological Institute {Vide "Journal," 
Vol. v., pp. 185 to 192). This paper, which he has kindly allowed 
me to subjoin, is as follows : — 



* See " Gentleman's Magazine " for November and December 1840, and 
January 1841, in proof that Warwick was the place of mintage. 

t Vol. i., p. 168. 

X As to the probability that gold was struck in small quantities in the 
Anglo-Saxon times, though not from the die of the penny like Mr. Spurrier's 
piece, see Mr. Akerman's remarks on the Saxon mint, in the Jubilee edition 
of King Alfred's works. 



41 



" Some Notes on the Tradition of Flaying, inflicted in Punishment 
of Sacrilege ; the Skin of the Offender heing affixed to the church 
doors. 

" It may be known to some of our readers, who have chanced 
to visit the eastern counties of England, and are acquainted with 
the picturesque site of the little town of Linton, or the adjacent 
rural hamlet of Hadstock, that a strange tradition yet darkly 
subsists amongst the peasantry in that locality, dating, as it would 
appear, from times anterior to the invasion of the Normans. It 
relates to the cruel and summary vengeance there supposed to 
have been inflicted upon a sacrilegious Dane. Few years have 
elapsed, since the curious traveller who visited that secluded spot, 
upon the borders of the counties of Essex and Cambridge, was 
wont to be directed to the north door of the little church, regarded 
by some as of Saxon date, to seek beneath the massive clamps 
and hinges for a relic of the Pirate Northman, whose skin had 
been attached to the door, a ghastly memorial of ecclesiastical 
vengeance, and a warning to all who might approach the church 
with like unhallowed intention. 

"lam not aware when the earliest mention of this singular 
tale was recorded by any antiquarian writer of the last century. 
Sir Harry Englefield laid before the Society of Antiquaries, in 
1789, a plate of iron, taken, by permission of the rector, from 
the door of Hadstock church, Essex, with a portion of skin, con- 
sidered to be human, found under the iron. 

" The tradition regarding that church had been recorded by 
Morant, in his " History of Essex," with the statement that a 
second similar tale had been preserved in the village of Copford, 
in the same county. These, however, are not solitary examples 
of the existence of such popular relations in England. Having 
learned that one of the doors of Worcester cathedral had been 
reputed by common belief to bear a coating of human skin, the 
circumstance appeared so singular, connected with the village 
traditions in a remote eastern county, already mentioned, that 
I was induced to address myself to a zealous and intelligent 
investigator of Worcestershire antiquities, Mr. Jabez Allies, 



42 

F.S.A., through whose kindness my curiosity was quickly gratified. 
The singular fact had, indeed, previously arrested the attention of 
the indefatigable Worcestershire antiquary, the late Dr. Prattin- 
ton, of Bewdley, amongst whose extensive collections for the 
" History of the County," bequeathed to the Society of An- 
tiquaries of London, and preserved at Somerset House, occurs 
the object thus described ; — 

"•A portion of skin, supposed to be human, according to the 
tradition that a man, who had stolen the sanctus-bell from the 
high-altar in Worcester cathedral, had been flayed, and his skin 
affixed to the north doors, as a punishment for such sacrilege. 
The doors having been removed, are now to be seen in the crypt 
of the cathedral, and small fragments of skin may still be seen 
beneath the iron- work with which they are strengthened*.' 

" Having been induced to follow out the investigation sug- 
gested by such ancient traditions, with the conviction that all 
means of adducing evidence to substantiate or disprove them 
would quickly be destroyed, in the present course of church 
restoration, I sought without delay to procure specimens, un- 
deniably authenticated, of the supposed human cuticle in ques- 
tion, with the intention of submitting it to the test of scientific 
examination by one of our most skilful comparative anatomists. 

" By the prompt kindness of Mr. Allies I shortly received, not 
merely a fragment of the skin taken from the great northern 
doors of the cathedral of Worcester, but a careful drawing from 
actual measurement, for which my best thanks are due to Harvey 
Eginton, Esq., F.S.A., of Worcester, whose knowledge and judg- 
ment in all that is associated with ancient architecture is most 
honourably esteemed in his county. The old doors had been 
removed about forty years since to the crypt, and replaced by new 
wood-work : their date is considered by Mr. Eginton to be the 
fourteenth century ; and there can be little doubt that they are 
coeval with the work completed during the time of Bishop Wake- 
field, when the north porch, the principal entrance from the city, 
is supposed to have been erected, about the year 1386. The 

* " A Catalogue of Antiquities and Miscellaneous Curiosities in the pos- 
session of the Society of Antiquaries of London," p. 46. 



43 

vaulting of the north aisle of the nave had only been constructed 
towards 1327. 

" On close examination of the old doors, which, as usual in 
principal entrances of large churches, were in several pieces, so 
that the lower leaves only, or a moiety of them, might be un- 
folded, unless some occasion of unusual ceremony required the 
whole to be thrown open, Mr. Allies succeeded in obtaining from 
the inner side of the door, where it was traversed by a massive 
bar of wood, several small portions of skin. The wooden bar 
corresponded in position with an exterior one of iron, attached 
by bolts or nails passing through the internal bar of wood, and 
there rivetted. He was decidedly of opinion that the skin had 
been laid upon the wooden leaves of the door, at the time of its 
original construction. ' I recollect,' observes Mr. Allies, ' a horrid 
tale used to be told when I was a boy, that some person in times 
of yore had been skinned alive for sacrilege, and that his skin 
was nailed upon the inside of the north door of the cathedral. 
This tradition is still known to several persons in this city, who 
recollect seeing the skin on the inner surface of the doors, pre- 
viously to their removal.' 

" The supposed human skin obtained from Worcester, in con- 
sequence of the obliging researches of Mr. Allies and Mr. 
Eginton, was forthwith submitted to a gentleman eminently 
skilled in the use of microscopic observation for investigating 
minute details connected with comparative anatomy. I allude to 
Mr. John Quekett, Assistant Conservator of the Musuem of the 
Royal College of Surgeons, by whom I was favoured with the 
following report. 

" * I have carefully examined the portion of skin which you 
forwarded to me for my inspection, and beg to inform you that I 
am perfectly satisfied that it is human skin, taken from some 
part of the body of a light-haired person, where little hair grows. 
A section of the specimen, when examined with a power of a 
hundred diameters, shows readily that it is skin, and two hairs 
which grow on it I find to be human hairs, and to present the 
characters that hairs of light-haired people do. The hairs of the 
human subject differ greatly from those of any other mammalian 



44 

animal, and the examination of a hair alone, without the skin, 
would have enabled me to form a conclusion. I may state that 
this is the second occasion in which, from the hairs alone, I have 
been enabled to pronounce an animal substance to be human.' 

" Encouraged by this result, I lost no time in the endeavour 
to obtain a fragment of the Dane's exuviae from Hadstock, in 
order to subject it to a similar test. Through the kindness of 
the Hon. Eichard Neville, who had noticed the tradition pre- 
served at that place, in his interesting memorials of researches 
made by him near Chesterford and Audley End-, I obtained 
such a sample. The door, being much decayed, had been re- 
moved in 1846, but part of the original wood-work, with the 
massive nails which served to attach the skin, is in Mr. Neville's 
possession, as also a piece of the robber's hide, of considerable 
thickness, and considered to have been tanned previously to its 
being laid upon the wood. This relic had been given by the 
rector of Hadstock, the Kev. C. Towneley, to Mr. Neville, who, 
in a very obliging manner, supplied me with a portion to facilitate 
my inquiries. Again I had the satisfaction of receiving from Mr. 
Quekett an answer wholly corroborative of the popular tradition. 
His opinion was thus expressed : — 

" ' I have been again fortunate in making out the specimen of 
skin you last sent me to be human ; I found on it three hairs 
which I have preserved ; I shall shortly send you a drawing of 
them, as compared with one from a living subject, and you will 
at once see their identity. I should further state that the skin 
was in all probability removed from the back of the Dane, and 
that he was a fair-haired person.' 

" On communicating this satisfactory verdict to Mr. Neville, he 
informed me that Mr. Towneley had likewise just ascertained the 
fact by scientific examination of these remains. The next step 
was directed by the information supplied by Morant, in relation 
to the church of Copford, in Essex. On communicating the 
object of inquiry to the rector, the Rev. Kennett C. Bayley, he 
kindly sent me the following reply : ' There are no remains of 

* " Antiqua Explorata," the result of Excavations made by Hon. R. C. 
Neville, &c, p. 34. Saffron Walden, 1847. 8vo, 



45 

skin on the door at the present time. I have, however, in my 
possession, a short MS. account of the parish, written during the 
incumbency of John Dane, 1689--1714, wherein is the following : 
" ' the doors of this church are much adorned with flourished iron- 
work, underneath which is a sort of skin, taken notice of in the 
year 1690, when an old man of Colchester, hearing Copford 
mentioned, said, that in his young time he heard his master say 
that he had read in an old history that the church was robbed by 
Danes, and their skins nailed to the doors ; upon which some 
gentlemen, being curious, went thither, and found a sort of 
tanned skin, thicker than parchment, which is supposed to be 
human skin, nailed to the door of the said church, underneath 
the said iron-work, some of which skin is still to be seen.' " 

" Mr. Bayley added, ' Since writing the above I have heard 
that what remained of the skin was removed about four years 
ago. I hear, however, of two pieces in this neighbourhood, and 
if I can succeed in procuring either of them, I will forward it to 
you.' This obliging promise was fulfilled on the ensuing day. 
The fragment had been taken by a carpenter in the parish from 
underneath the iron-work of the door, about the year 1843, when 
the church was under repair. He gave it to a Mr. Eley, a miller 
at Copford, from whom it was procured by Mr. Bayley. 

" The issue of the third appeal to the discriminating judgment 
of Mr. Quekett proved likewise conclusive. His answer was 
this : ' I am happy to tell you that I have succeeded in making 
out the Copford specimen to be human, as well as the others ; I 
have shown the hairs from this as well as from the others to some 
friends who were sceptical, but they are now quite of my opinion. 
I have had drawings made, and I desired the artist to draw a 
human hair by the side of the others, so that there can be no doubt 
of the identity of the hair. I must ask you to allow me to mention 
the subject at our Microscopical Society, to show how valuable the 
microscope is in determining doubtful points of this nature.' 

" The value of natural science as a friendly ally to archaeology, 
in supplying conclusive evidence on a question which must, with- 
out such aid, have been left to vague conjecture, has been 
strikingly shown in the present instance. The singular cor- 



46 

roboration of the truth of popular tradition, thus undeniably 
established, may serve to remind us that no circumstance, 
however apparently trivial or absurd, is without utility in the 
investigation of the history and usages of ancient times. 

" Having an opportunity of stating these facts to Lord Bray- 
brooke, he had the kindness to communicate the following curious 
passage from Pepys' Diary, taken from the highly valuable 
additions which have been made by his lordship in the recently 
published edition of those remarkable memoirs. 

"' April 10, 1661. To Rochester, and there saw the cathe- 
dral observing the great doors of the church, as they 

say, covered with the skins of the Danes.' In early times the 
Thames had been frequently the resort of the Danes, and the 
men of Kent were continually harrassed by their rapacious 
cruelty. In the year 999 they went up the Medway to Roches- 
ter, according to the " Saxon Chronicle," and made a most fatal 
foray, overrunning nearly all West Kent. Rochester cathedral 
was rebuilt by Bishop Gundulph, towards the latter part of the 
eleventh century. He succeeded to the see in 1077. 

" Hitherto I have been unable, after repeated inquiries at 
Rochester, to trace any other statement regarding this fourth 
example of such a singular tradition ; but the report of so 
minutely accurate an observer as Pepys must be regarded as of 
unquestionable authority. Lord Braybrooke • subsequently ob- 
served, that he had been informed by Mr. Neville that the north 
door of Hadstock was that upon which the skin was nailed, and 
suggested the inquiry, ' Was this the case at Copford as well as 
Worcester? because that aspect was always unpopular for pur- 
poses of interment, the sun never shining on the graves so 
situate.' Mr. Bayley has since informed me that the skin was 
on ' the south door, none on the north.' 

" Other examples, it has been reported to me, are to be found 
in the north-eastern parts of the country, in the neighbourhood, 
probably, of the coast, long infested by the cruel plunderers from 
the North, and I hope that these notices may prove the means 
of drawing forth further information on the subject. I have 
'bought the facts which have come to my knowledge well deserv- 



47 

ing to be recorded in full detail, at the risk even of appearing 
tediously circumstantial. In a very few years it would be im- 
practicable to substantiate these traditions by a chain of con- 
clusive evidence, such as I have now been enabled to adduce. 
That so barbarous an exhibition of summary punishment should 
have been permitted in comparatively uncivilized times, in remote 
and defenceless villages, exposed by their vicinity to the coast to 
frequent inroads of the pirates of the Baltic, may appear less 
extraordinary, but it must be admitted, that the exposure of the 
skin of a criminal within the walls of cathedral churches, or 
upon the doors of their most frequented entrances, was a savage 
display of vengeance, which it is very difficult to comprehend. 
At Worcester, moreover, this was done in no days of barbarism, 
or disregard of judicial enactments : the reign of Kichard II. 
was marked by the rapid advance of civilization, the introduction 
of foreign refinements and luxury. It is, indeed, possible that 
the skin, in that instance, might have been the vestige of a 
punishment inflicted long previously ; but its preservation in such 
a place, and at times such as the period when the northern part 
of that cathedral was erected, is a fact most startling and 
incomprehensible. 

" The question here suggests itself, by what authority, by what 
judicial enactment, was this barbarous punishment inflicted, not 
merely as summary vengeance in a moment of great popular in- 
dignation, in remote localities where the administration of the 
laws might be imperfectly maintained, but inflicted with the 
sanction of the Church, and the remembrance of the sanguinary 
deed carefully perpetuated. Many examples of such horrid 
torments might be found in ancient history, such as the martyr- 
dom of St. Bartholomew by the Armenians, the cruel end of the 
Emperor Valerian, in the third century, flayed alive by Sapor, 
king of the Persians, or the fate of the Chief Justice Itinerant in 
the north of England, Hugo de Cressyngham, in the reign of 
Edward I., who was flayed by the exasperated Scots at Strivelyn, 
a.d. 1296. Knyghton thus describes the indignity thus inflicted 
upon the king's treasurer. ■ Quern excoriantes Scoti diviserunt 
inter se pellem ipsius per modicas partes, non quidem ad reliquias 



48 

sed in contumelias, erat enim pulcher et grassus nimis, vo- 
caveruntque eum non Thesaurarium sed Traiturarium regis*.' 
Such atrocities have been committed in every age, on occasions of 
despotic tyranny or lawless commotionf. 

" Punishments of a very dreadful description were doubtless 
sanctioned by law in the Anglo-Saxon and later ages. In some 
of the early judicial enactments expressions occur which, at first 
sight, would induce the supposition that flaying was a punish- 
ment of no rare occurrence. ' Corium forisfacere, corium perdere, 
corium carere, cute privare, corio componere];,' and similar 
phrases appear, however, to have implied only such excoriation as 
might be inflicted by severe scourging, and for this it was mostly 
permitted to make a composition, — corium redimere, — called in 
Anglo-Saxon, hyd-gild, money paid by an offender to save his skin. 
It is indeed possible that in very rude times actual excoriation 
was inflicted, and afterwards commuted for severe fustigation, 
described in the dreadful terms above mentioned ; and occasion- 
ally it would appear that flaying is really implied in these 
enactments. For example, in the laws of Henry I., it is or- 
dained that if any man slay his lord, there should be no redemp- 
tion, — ' nullo modo se redimat, sed de comacione (scalping) vel 
excoriacione, severa gentium animadversione dampnetur, ut diris 
tormentorum cruciatibus, et male mortis infortuniis infelicem 
prius animam exhalasse, quam finem doloribus excepisse videa- 
tur§.' 

" Much more might be said in regard to the curious question 
of the legality of ' excoriatio^ literally inflicted in pursuance of 
judicial ordinances of mediaeval times, but I must leave the 
subject to the consideration of those who are more versed than 
myself in ancient laws. The penalty for sacrilegious theft was 
mostly of unusual severity: according to the laws of Alfred, 

* Knyghton, " Decern Scriptores," col. 2519. 

+ It is affirmed that amongst the dreadful cruelties of the French Revolution 
at the close of the last century, the skins of the victims were tanned and made 
into boots. 

J See Ducange, Corium, Decoriare, Cutis, Crines, &c. 

§ " Ancient Laws and Institutes of England," Vol. i., p. 579. 



49 

robbery in a church was punishable by fine, and the guilty hand 
was to be struck off: this, however, might be redeemed*. In the 
case of spoliation by barbarian invaders, where probably successive 
bands had repeatedly laid waste the sacred fabric, it seems very 
probable that the enormity of the crime would readily be admitted 
as a justification of the most savage punishment. I am strongly 
inclined to the opinion that flaying was not a specific punishment 
for any particular offence or class of offences, but was an arbitrary 
mode of inflicting the penalty of death, in such instances as these, 
where the vindictive excitement of the occasion could not be 
satisfied by any ordinary modes of punishment." 

■' Albert Way." 

In reference to the observation of Mr. Way that the skin 
affixed to the northern doors " may possibly be the vestige of a 
punishment inflicted long previously" to the erection of the 
northern porch by Bishop Wakefield, about 1386, it is right to 
add, that such in fact appears to have been the case. Upon 
reading his observation it occurred to me, that when Bishop 
Wakefield erected the northern doorway and stopped up the 
great western doorwayf, he in all probability removed the doors 
from the latter entrance to supply the former ; this idea, I 
communicated to the late Mr. Eginton, who replied by letter, as 
follows : — " Worcester, Jan. 31st, 1849. — Dear Sir, — To-day I 
compared the doors in the crypt with the arch at the west end ; 
the yore doors formerly were there." The only remaining ques- 
tion, therefore, is the age of these ancient west-end doors. 

Now, it is said that the Bishoprick of Worcester was founded 
by Ethelred, King of the Mercians, at the request of Osric, or 
Oshere, a petty prince of. the Mercians, in 679 or 680 ; that in 
894, Duke Ethelred, Viceroy of Mercia, and his wife Ethelfled, 
daughter of Alfred the Great, rebuilt the city and also the church, 
minster, or monastery, which had been destroyed by the Danes ; 
that St. Oswald built the Cathedral in 983 ; that in 1041 it 
was burnt with the city by Hardicanute's soldiers, in the revolt of 

* " Ancient Laws," Vol. i., p. 67. 

+ The stone arch of this doorway still remains in the wall, but it evidently 
was much disturbed when the great window was erected above it. 

E 



50 

the citizens about the Danegelt ; and that in 1089 it was rebuilt 
by St. Wolstan, with the exception of the nave, afterwards added 
by Bishop De Blois about 150 years subsequently. The historian 
Green, and others, are of opinion that the west end of the nave is 
part of St. Oswald's building-, and that it escaped the fire which 
consumed the rest of the Cathedral in the time of Hardicanute. 
This idea seems to be corroborated by the fact, that the western 
portion of the nave is in the Saxon style, and of white sand- 
stone, while the remainder is after the Norman model, and of red 
sandstone. 

Therefore, under all circumstances, the doors in question may 
be very ancient, although it is impossible to assign a particular 
date to them. The fact, however, of their containing what, in 
other instances, are commonly called " Danes' skins," appears to 
cany us back to those barbarous times to look for their date, 
although it is possible that those doors were erected at a later 
period, and contained the evidence of a later punishment for 
sacrilege — that is, if there was such a punishment in later times. 
But if the skin in question really is that of a Dane, the doors 
consequently are Saxon ; unless, indeed, they were some time or 
other renewed|. And if the doors are Saxon, they are an additional 
proof that the west end of the nave is Saxon. And if the doors 
were renewed, still the skin may be that of a Dane, and have been 
transferred from the previous doors to those in question. It is 
here to be observed, that the bits of skin which I obtained from 
one of the upper flaps of the doors, adhered very closely to it, and 
there was an appearance of something like red paint upon the 
under side of the skin. The lithographic engraving, Plate 2, 
represents the doors with their dimensions, as prepared by Mr. 
Eginton, at my request, for Mr. Way. It will appear by No. 1, 
that the top of the doors is arched in the Saxon style. No. 2 
represents the back of one of the upper flaps of the doors, with the 
strong band of wood across it, under which there are still portions 

* See Mr. Ashpitel's paper, in further proof of this view of the case, in the 
" Report of the Proceeding of the Archaeological Association at Worcester," 
published 1851, pp. 403 to 418. 

+ See a general statement of Danish Relics in Worcestershire, in the 
account of Alfrick. 



Plcote. 2. p. 50. 





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51 

of the skin. No. 3 is the band of wood and the rivetting of the 
nails, one-half of the actual size. 

The following is a copy of the letter from Mr. Eginton to Mr. 
Way, which accompanied the drawings : — " Worcester, June 19th, 
1847. — My dear Sir, — It has given me much pleasure to make 
the accompanying drawing of the existing portion of the ancient 
north door to our Cathedral. The head and the lower part have 
evidently been separate — the lower ends of the boards, forming 
the head, having pieces of wood from six and a half to seven 
inches mortised into them, and the bottom of the lower half of 
the door the same. The position of the lower part of the door I 
have ascertained by measuring the planks, which agree with 
those in the head of the door. There is little in the iron-work to 
define very precisely its date ; but the general character of the 
door and iron-work is such as is commonly found in plain work 
in the middle of the fourteenth century. — Yours truly, Harvey 
Eginton." 

In the commencement of the inquiry, as we were examining 
the doors in the crypt, Mr. Eginton observed, that they had no 
distinctive style or mark about them whereby to judge of their 
age ; but he added, that they might have been of the fourteenth 
century, when the north doorway was made. It is worthy of 
remark, however, that when we were in the crypt (and which was 
a year and a half before the point was raised as to their having 
been the western doors), he said that they had been altered some 
time or other. Now as Mr. Eginton subsequently (that is by his 
letter of 31st January, 1849) declared them to be the yore doors 
which formerly stood at the west end, I have no doubt that the 
alteration was made at the time they were removed to the northern 
doorway. 

WOLSTAN'S SEAL. 

In the "Journal of the Archaeological Institute" (Vol. iii., p. 
261) there is an engraving of the seal of St. Wolstan, accompanied 
by the following description : — 

" At the recent meeting of the Institute at York, a remarkable 
original deed was exhibited, being a grant from St. Wolstan, 
Bishop of Worcester, of fifteen hides of land in Alveston, formerly 



52 




called from its Saxon occupant Eanulfestune, Warwickshire, 

to the monastery of 
Worcester. An im- 
pression of the episco- 
pal seal was appended 
(see the accompanying 
woodcut of it), and the 
deed bore date, the 
day of Pentecost, in 
the third year of King 
William the younger, 
a.d. 1089. This docu- 
ment had been given 
by Dugdale in the 
w Monasticon," from 
transcripts in the 
11 Worcester Cartu- 
lary," Cott. MS., Tib. 
A., xiii*., and the " Annales Wigornenses," Claud. A., x. He had 
printed it also in his " History of Warwickshire," from a very 
ancient register in the custody of the Dean and Chapter of Wor- 
cester ; and it maybe found in " Heming's Cartulary," printed by 
Hearne, with the ancient Saxon description of the boundaries. 
The existence of Wolstan's original charter does not appear to 
have been noticed-)-. This deed, independently of its fine state 
of preservation, is of considerable interest, as fixing precisely the 
period of the completion of the new buildings erected by Wolstan. 
After reciting his purpose and endeavours to augment the monas- 
tery constructed by St. Oswald, his predecessor, both in the 
erection and appointments of the church itself, and increase of 
the establishment, he stated that he had added to the number of 
the monks, who were about twelve in number, and had formed a 

* i.e. " Heming's Cartulary." 

•f " The various readings, noticed on collation with the original, have not ap- 
peared sufficiently material to justify the reprinting of this curious document at 
length. It deserves notice, however, that in the ' Monasticon ' the date had heen 
erroneously printed M.lxxxviij., an error not noticed in the new edition. In 
the ' Hist. Warw.,' and Hearne's edition of ' Heming's Cartulary,' it is 
correctly given." 



53 

congregation of fifty, for whose sustenance he gave the lands in 
Alveston, long possessed unjustly by certain powerful persons*, 
and acquired by him with much labour and cost from William 
the Conqueror. He dated his gift from the twenty-seventh year 
of his episcopate, and the first of the occupation of the new 
monastery by him erected, of which the refectory and adjoining 
buildings, as also the crypt under the choir, and the transept, are 
now the principal remainsf. William of Malmsbury informs us 
that these works had commenced a.d. 1084, and he gives an 
interesting relation of the emotion of St. Wolstan, when, on their 
completion, the old church, erected by St. Oswald, a.d. 983, was 
about to be demolished]:. 

It must be observed that Dr. Thomas has given a figure of the 
seal, in his work, entitled, " A Survey of the Cathedral Church of 
Worcester, with an account of the Bishops thereof," &c, A. 88. 

DOMESDAY SURVEY. 

In the " Archaeologia," Vol. viii., p. 440, Appendix, there is 
the following interesting passage : — 

" Mr. As tie gave an account of an ancient MS. Register of the 
priory of Worcester, now [1765] in his possession, intituled, 
' Liber irrotulatorius et consuetudinarius prioratus B. Marie de 
Wigorn.' containing, among other curious particulars, the follow- 
ing article : — 

" ' Articuli hundredorum, or articles of inquiry sent by William 
the Conqueror to the sheriffs and Prepositi hundredorum, previous 
to his making the great survey of England ; also several of the 
common customs of Villeins, the Novsb Provisiones Anglie in the 
reign of Henry III., with' many other things of a public nature.' " 

* " These were, as we learn from Domesday, Bricstuinus, who, in the times 
of the Confessor, held a moiety of the lands granted by Wolstan ; Britnodus 
and Aluni being occupants of the remainder. See the statement of their 
recovery by the bishop, ' Domesday Book,' f. 238, b." 

+ "The expression is as follows: — 'Anno ingressionis nostre in novum 
monasterium, quod construxi in honore dei genetricis, primo.' It would 
appear by the context, that the church, rebuilt by Wolstan, had, as well as the 
monastic buildings, been completed previously to the date of his grant." 

J " Anglia Sacra," ii., 241. 



54 



pr 1. 



KEMPSEY. 

Several fragments of sepulchral urns, cups, and pans of various 
shapes and sizes, evidently belonging to the time of the Komans 
and Romanized or later Britons, were, in the spring of 1835, dug 
out of a gravel bed at Kempsey. Some of these vessels were 
made of a coarse dark clay, others of common red or brick clay. 
The fragments, which were discovered about three feet and a half 
beneath the surface, were enveloped in a black ash, and deposited 
in a cavity or cist of about six yards in circumference, over which a 
roof of broken pebbles and clay had been originally formed, but 
which had since fallen into the cist, and probably broke the 
vessels. There were also a few fragments of bones in the cist, 

apparently the bones 
of a horse, one of 
them being part of 
the jaw-bone of that 
animal, with several 
teeth in it. There was 
likewise found there 
part of a bronze fibula 
or brooch (vide woodcut here represented, No. 1, of the actual 
size) ; these were used by the men to fasten the tunic and 
chlamys, or cloak, on the shoulder, and by the women the vest- 
ment in front of the breast*. Some of the Roman fibulae are of 
the circular form, others oblong, and not very dissimilar (though 
much smaller) to the guard beneath the trigger of a gun, and 
with the acus or pin compressed into the socket, have been com- 
pared to a bow ready strung. The fibula in question is of the 

* The scientific reader will excuse these occasional explanations, my object 
being that this work should be a kind of popular antiquarian history of the 
county. 




55 

latter form, but destitute of the acus, which probably had 
mouldered away. 

The remains of a horse, found in this cist, affords strong evi- 
dence that the ashes of a Komanized British chieftain were 
deposited there ; for such costly funeral sacrifices, although very 
common among our rude ancestors, and constituting a part of 
their religion, were much restricted among the Komans by the 
laws of the Twelve Tables. In other parts of the kingdom, frag- 
ments of the horns of stags have been found in similar cists, 
from which it may be inferred that hunters were buried there. 

About a dozen other cists, although not so large as the one 
already described, were likewise discovered in the course of the 
same year, near the same spot, whilst excavating for gravel ; they 
contained ashes, broken pebbles, and various articles of broken 
pottery ; and in 1836, and the three following years, several other 
cists were found there. One of them was of an oval shape, near 
three yards long, two yards broad, and about five feet deep in the 
gravel. The others were smaller, and not quite so deep. Some 
of the latter merely contained black ashes ; others, ashes and 
fragments of red earth pottery (the mouth of one of the urns 
being twenty-eight inches in circumference) ; the largest cist 
contained black ashes, and a broken pan of rather coarse materials, 
which, judging from a segment, was three feet in circumference. 
Several of the fragments have handles, some of which are of con- 
siderable thickness. One of the cists contained a specimen with 
zig-zag lines thereon, and pieces of urns, cups, and paterae, 

together with portions of 

sqQs the burnt bones and teeth 

SrStr~~~ "^ := "~~ r — »^. °f a ho rse - I n another 

mfjjjjl* cist, an acus of a fibula of 

. J Jjjp brass was found mixed up 

with similar relics (vide 
woodcut thereof, No. 2, actual size) ; and in the gravel a coin of 
Nero was discovered. The spot in question is situated about four 
miles from Worcester, in a ploughed field called the Moors, which 
belonged to the late Joseph Smith, Esq., on a ridge or precipice 
of ground, out of flood's-way, which skirts the flat on the east side 



56 

of the river Severn, and lies between that river and the village of 
Kempsey, near the northern side of the mound or agger of a Roman 
camp, within the site of the southern end of which Kempsey Church 
stands. At an adjoining place, called the Parish Gravel Pit, were 
found, about twelve years ago, a small Roman vase and a piece of 
Samian ware. Most of the articles which are here described, I 
from time to time obtained of the workmen upon the spot, and 
deposited them in the Worcestershire Museum ; the others were 




5. 





presented by Mr. Smith. Woodcuts of some are here given : No. 
3 is of the slate coloured, and Nos. 4, 5 and 6*, of the red ware. 
The most ancient mode of sepulture among the Britons was by 
simple inhumationf ; it is thought that the Phoenicians introduced 
into this island the mode of burial by cremation or burning. The 



* A similar one to that numbered 6, was found at Diglis, near Worcester. 
See p. 28 ; and another at Droitwich. It much resembles a common flower- 
pot in shape, except that it has a handle. 

+ Vide Mr. Bloxam's work, entitled " A Glimpse at Monumental 
Architecture and Sepidture of Great Britain, from the earliest period to the 
Eighteenth Century," dated 1834, to which I am indebted for much of the 
above information as to the modes of ancient sepulture. 



57 

practice amongst the ancient Britons of depositing in the sepul- 
chres warlike instruments, drinking cups, and other articles, is 
likewise supposed to have been derived from the Phoenicians and 
Belgic Gauls. This custom is of great antiquity, and an instance 
of it occurs in the Book of Joshua, in a very ancient copy of the 
Septuagint, preserved in the Vatican, where it is stated that 
knives and instruments of flint were buried with his body in the 
tomb. The same practice is also alluded to in the Book of 
Ezekiel, wherein the prophet speaks of persons who were gone 
down to the grave with their weapons of war, and their swords 
laid under their heads. An instance of the practice of cremation 
is also recorded in the First Book of Samuel (Chap, xxxi.), 
wherein it is stated that the body of Saul and his sons were burnt 
after they had been taken down from the walls of Bethshan, and 
the bones were buried under a tree. There are also frequent 
allusions to the custom in Homer and the ancient classics. 

The sepulchral urns and cups of the Celtic and Belgic Britons, 
differ in many respects from those of the Roman era, from which 
they are in general easily distinguished. Those of the ancient 
Britons were coarsely formed on the wheel*, without the lathe ; in 
shape they bear some resemblance to a common flower-pot or 
truncated cone. The ornaments are rude, consisting chiefly of 
zig-zag and short diagonal lines, and many appear to have been 
moulded merely by exposure to the sun, or blackened by the 
funereal fire. Some are of a globular, others of a cylindrical 
form ; the latter being of the most ancient description ; and 
although the cinerary urns and drinking cups of the Romanized 
Britons and early Saxons were modelled after the Roman fashion, 
yet they generally correspond in shape with those of the ancient 
Britons. Some of the specimens above described are very much 
in accordance with these rules. 

The late Rev. Mr. Rudd, of Kempsey, had in his possession a 
fragment of a thick slab stone, one yard long and half a yard 
wide, containing a Latin inscription in honour of Constantine the 

* The Prophet Jeremiah, in describing the potter's tools in his time, says : 
" Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold he wrought a work on 
the wheels." — Vide C. xviii., v. 3. 



58 

Great. This was found in the camp, in the year 1818. The 
following is the inscription : — 

VAL C°NST 

ANTINO 

P F IN 

VICTO 

AVG* 

The same gentleman also had pieces of Roman tiles, which were 

found near the same placef. 

The agger of the above camp may still be easily traced, although, 
being a mound of gravel, it has been in many places much levelled. 
From what has been said, it is evident that the camp was a Roman 
one, and that the burial ground was likewise Roman, with the 
additional fact, that the ashes of Romanized British were also 
deposited in the same place. 

Great alterations being occasionally made at the site of the 
Kempsey camp, I will endeavour to give an account of it, as it 
appeared in 1840, fearing that in a few more years almost every 
vestige of it will have passed away. 

The western agger lay on the ridge of ground, or precipice, 
skirting the flat on the east side of the Severn. The north end 
of it commenced at the back of the garden belonging to the Par- 
sonage farm-house, and ran in a line from thence to within about 
fifteen yards of the south-west corner of Kempsey churchyard, 
where it turned round. Judging from a measure I made by foot- 
steps, this agger was about two hundred yards long. 

The southern agger appears to have run along the south side 
of the churchyard, and was about ninety yards long. 

The eastern agger ran along the east side of the churchyard 
and other property, and through the garden of Gore Cottage, 
into the orchard behind, and was about two hundred yards 
long. 

The northern agger ran from the above-mentioned garden and 
orchard to the north-west corner of the garden of the Parsonage 

* Valerio Constantino Pio Felici Invicto Augusto. 

+ The slab and tiles were bequeathed by Mr. Rudd to the Museum of the 
Worcestershire Natural History Society. 



59 

farm-house, and was one hundred and eighty yards long or there- 
abouts. The rounded corner which lay in the garden was very 
perfect, until the latter end of the year 1836, when it was 
removed ; but the portion of the agger which lies in the orchard 
still remains entire, and measures twenty-six yards in width. 

I do not find any account of this Roman camp in Dr. Nash's 
" History." He, however, speaks of a Roman way in the neigh- 
bourhood ; for in Vol. ii., p. 23, it is stated that a deed, dated 
1336, notices "the Portweye" at Bromhall, in the manor of 
Kempsey*. 

This place is called Cemesei, and Cymesige, in the Anglo 
Saxon Charters, No. 176 and 612, in the " Codex Diplomaticusf," 
and Chemesege in " Domesday Book." 

In the year 1844, a bronze spear-head was found in the Severn, 
the particulars of which I communicated to the Archaeological 
Institute ; it was thus noticed in their " Journal j :" " The spear- 
head was dredged up from the bed of the river Severn by some 
workmen, employed in the improvement of the navigation of that 
river, about a quarter of a mile below Kempsey Ferry, and the 
same distance above Pixam Ferry. They also found at the same 
spot, in the bed of the western side of the river, the remains of 
oaken piles, under the gravel, and of planking which had been 
fastened to the piles. These extended about half way across the 
river. The place is near the site of the Roman camp at Kempsey. 
This spear-head is formed of mixed metal, of very bright colour 
and hard quality, the edges being remarkably sharp. It measures 
in length ten [seven] inches and a half. The leaf-shaped blade 
terminates at the lower extremity in two loops, by means of 
which the spear-head, apparently, was securely attached to the 
shaft. This arrangement is not of uncommon occurrence, and it 
is well shown by the curious example of a stone mould for casting 
such weapons, found in Ireland, in Gal way, as also by an Irish 
weapon represented in this journal §. In the present instance 

* See ante, p. 9, relative to Roman port [or military] ways. 
f Also see " Heming's Cartulary," as to Kymesei, Kemeshege, Kemesege, 
Chemeshege, Kemesige, Kemesei, and Kemesey, p. 5, &c. 
t Vol. iii., p. 354. 
§ " Archgeologia," Vol. xv., pi. xxxiv. " Archaeological Journal," Vol. ii., p. 187. 



60 

there is a flat lozenge-shaped appendage on each side, a variety 
in the fashion of these weapons, apparently intended for the more 
secure protection of the cord passing through the loops. In some 
examples, a single loop on one side is found to have been accounted 
sufficient." 

This spear-head belongs to Walter Jones, Esq., of Worcester. 




A woodcut of it is here given. A few years ago a Roman coin 
was dug up at the Ketch between Kempsey and Worcester. 

UPTON. 

Cooke, in his "Topographical Library," published in 1830, 
(title "Worcestershire," p. 156) says: "In the year 1787, a 
circular cavity was discovered by a shepherd's boy in a corn field 
in the parish of Upton ; upon examination it was found to be the 
entrance to a cavern of considerable dimensions, sunk about ten 
feet below the surface, and extending in every direction about 
twenty feet. At about thirty or forty feet is a body of water, 
of the estimated depth of about one hundred and forty feet. 
Various conjectures originated from this discovery, some attri- 
buting these excavations to a convulsion of nature, others to the 
hand of art." 

The following extract from Vol. I. of " Old England," Chap, i., p. 
22, may throw some light upon the preceding quotation : " Tacitus, 
in his account of the manners of the Germans, says, ' The Ger- 
mans were accustomed to dig subterraneous caverns, and then to 
cover them with much loose mould, forming a refuge from wintry 
storms, and a receptacle for the fruits of the earth. In this 
manner the rigour of the frost is softened.' Tacitus also says 
that these caverns are hiding places for the people upon the 
irruption of an enemy. Hasted, the topographer of Kent, 
describes many such in the heaths, and fields, and woods, at 
Crayford. He says, that at the mouth, and thence downward, 



61 

they are narrow, like the tunnel or passage of a well; but at the 
bottom they are large and of great compass, so that some of them 
have several rooms, one within another, strongly vaulted, and 
supported with pillars of chalk. Diodorus Siculus expressly says 
that the Britons laid up their corn in subterranean repositories. 
The caves of Hawthornden were at once hiding places and store- 
houses ; and it is not carrying our fancies too far to believe that 
the shelved cavities of the rock were receptacles for food, in small 
portions* — the oatmeal and the pulse that were thus preserved 
from worms and mildew." 

Some antiquaries are now of opinion that certain classes of 
these wells, which contain chambers, were either Roman ceme- 
taries, or hermits cells, or granaries, and that others of them, not 
containing chambers, might have been either wells or rubbish 
holes. 

It is said, that on the hill at Southend, near Upton, traces of 
intrenchments appear ; and Dr. Nash, in his " History!," remarks 
that " Stukeley, in his 'Itinerarium Curiosum,'p. 65, first edition, 
says : * There was a road along the Severn from Worcester to 
Upton, where antiquities are dug up. I take the town to be the 
Upocessa of Ravennasj.' The road, he says, ' went to Tewkes- 
bury^ and joined the Rickning Street||, but no remains are now 
to be seen.' " 

This appears to be the road referred to in our subsequent 
account of Ripple, a great part of which is still remaining. 

In January, 1846, a thumb ring was found at Saxon's Lode, 
the particulars of which I communicated to the Archseological 
Institute, and an account thereof appeared in their " Journal," 
Vol. III., p. 268, as follows : " A ring formed of silver, con- 
siderably alloyed or plated with baser metal, and strongly gilt, 

* Such was the case at Kemerton Camp ; see the account. 

+ Vol. ii., p. 444. 

\ In Luckombe's " Gazetteer," 1790, it is stated that Roman coins were 
often dug up at Upton. 

§ In Grose's " Antiquities," Vol. vi., it is stated that a paved way leads by 
Upton to Gloucester. 

|| Or Rycknield Street. 



62 



was found in dredging in the bed of the Severn, in January last, 
at a place called Saxon s or Saxton's Lode, a little southward of 
Upton, which supplies a good example of the signet thumb ring 
of the fifteenth century ; the hoop is grooved spirally, it weighs 
17 dwts. 18 grs., and exhibits the initial "H." Signet rings of 
this kind were worn by rich citizens, or persons of substance, not 
entitled to bear arms. Falstaff bragged that in earlier years 
he had been so slender in figure that he could readily have crept 
through an 'alderman's thumb ring;' and a ring thus worn, 
probably, as more conspicuous, appears to have been considered 
as appropriate to the attire of a civic dignitary at a much later 

period. A character in the Lord 
Mayor's show, in the year 1664, 
is described as ' habited like a 
grave citizen, — gold girdle and 
gloves hung thereon, rings on his 
fingers, and a seal ring on his 
thumb.' " 

The ring in question belongs to 

Hilary Hill, Esq., of Worcester, 

who kindly allowed me to exhibit 

it to the Archaeological Institute. A woodcut of it is here 

represented. 




KIPPLE AND TWYNING. 

In consequence of a report that some ancient pottery had been 
discovered at Bow Farm, in the parish of Ripple, about three 
miles from Tewkesbury, and thirteen from Worcester, I repaired 
to the spot in October 1838, and found that a drain, twelve feet 
deep and upwards, had been made across a pasture*, on the 
eastern border of the Severn, in Worcestershire, and the next 
field but one to the verge of the county of Gloucester. About 
seventy yards from the river, a slight rise, which lies parallel 
with the Severn, had been cut through. Mr. W. T. Horniblow, 



* Pull Court is situated nearly opposite to this pasture, on the western side 
of the river. 



63 

the tenant, and the workmen informed me that all the way through 
that part they found, at the average depth of about four feet, a 
stratum of black ashes and cinders, with pieces of pottery ; that 
also occasionally below the stratum they found similar fragments 
of pottery, and that the earth above the black stratum appeared 
to have been a gradual accumulation, which, in the course of 
time, had been deposited upon the plain by occasional overflowings 
of the river. The trench had been filled up again before my 
arrival, but I picked up several pieces of the pottery and oxidated 
bits of iron which had been excavated. Mr. Horniblow had 
previously collected several of such fragments in the course of 
the work, all of which I have deposited in the Worcestershire 
Museum. He and the workmen said that they had examined the 
earth above the stratum very carefully, and were satisfied that it 
had never been disturbed since it was deposited ; but that the 
earth, for four or five feet deep beneath the black stratum, 
appeared to have been disturbed some time or other. He also 
said that he was informed by an old workman, that about thirty- 
five years ago he assisted in cutting a like drain across the north- 
end of this pasture, where they found, at about the same depth, 
and in the same line, a similar stratum of ashes, cinders, and 
pottery. 

Upon examination these specimens proved to be fragments of 
Eoman sepulchral urns and pans, exactly like those (now in the 
Worcestershire Museum) discovered in the cists of the Eoman 
burial ground, at Kempsey ; but I am satisfied that this pasture 
at Ripple was not a burial ground (for it is not out of flood's-way), 
but that it was a Roman pottery ground where they made their 
sepulchral and other pottery, of the clay which they excavated at 
or near the spot*. 

At two subsequent examinations of the mould thrown up from 
a depth of about four feet, several fragments of pottery, both 
red and black, were discovered; also bits of burnt wood and 
oxidated iron. I also found a few pieces of unburnt coal in the 
alluvial soil above the bed, which I presume had been washed 

* There are brick-works now within a mile of thfi place, both above and 
below it. 



64 

there from the coal-fields by the floods. I was rather curious to 
sift this point to the bottom, because the presence of coal ashes in 
the bed would have proved that the Romans used coal as well as 
wood at the works. I have also since examined the bed of scoriae 
and clinkers at that part of Cinder Point where it encroaches 
upon the bank of the Severn, and found several pieces of burnt 
wood, but no burnt coal, in the stratum. There were a few bits 
of unburnt coal in the alluvial soil above the bed, some of which 
were rounded, showing that they had been rolled there by the 
floods. 

Within a mile of the pasture, to the north-east, is a very 
remarkable elevation, called Towbury Hill, lying in Twyning 
parish, Gloucestershire, and overlooking the spot in question. 
On the summit of the hill (which is composed chiefly of marl) is 
the site of an ancient camp, of rather an irregular oblong square 
shape. This hill, which is evidently a natural formation, is pared 
down at the sides in steep slopes, and rounded at the corners ; 
but whether the Romans formed the camp, or whether it was a 
more ancient one, of which they merely took possession, I cannot 
pretend to determine. Mr. Bennett, in his " History of Tewkes- 
bury," has described it at some length, and given reasons for 
believing that, after the time of the Romans, it was occupied by 
one of the Mercian kings. This camp appears to be about two 
hundred and forty yards long on the western side, three hundred 
on the northern, and one hundred and twenty on the eastern, and 
southern sides. Within the square, at the south-east corner, is 
a circular tumulus surrounded by a trench, answering to the 
Roman preetorium*. 

At the foot of Towbury Hill, on the western side, runs a small 
brook, which divides Worcestershire from Gloucestershire ; over 

* A fragment of a brass spear-head of the time of Charles I. was lately found 
beneath the surface at Towbury Hill. It is conjectured by Leland that the 
house of King Offa, or of King Kenulphus, stood upon this hill, which he 
calls " Tetbyri Castelle," with double ditches (see his " Itinerary," Vol. vi, 
p. 71) ; and within about a mile of which is the Mythe Tute, or Royal Hill. 
There are places called Great Towbury and Little Towbury, in the parish of 
Leigh. 



65 

it there is an ancient bridge, called Bow Bridge, from which Mr. 
Horniblow informed me there were traces at intervals of an 
ancient paved road all the way to Tewkesbury, in the line of an 
old bridle-road across the fields, by the Mythe Tute, and that this 
road, or track- way, was generally about four feet wide, and made 
of blocks of lias stone, set edgewise against each other ; that it 
was reported that similar traces of it w r ere formerly discoverable 
from the above-mentioned bridge towards Ripple village, and he 
thought that it probably continued from that village to within 
half a mile of Severn Bank, where traces of such a road still 
exist, with one branch leading towards Upton, and another 
towards Pershore ; that it runs from Severn Bank, nearly in the 
line of the Upton bridle-road, to the turnpike at the bottom 
of Stoke Hill, situated about seven miles from Worcester, 
where, crossing, it turns in an easterly direction, and is still 
traceable, for about a mile further on in a direction towards 
Pershore ; between this place and Defford Common it is said that 
traces were also formerly visible. I examined the whole line of 
this ancient road, from the southern foot of Bow Bridge to the 
Mythe Tute, and found it very perfect in some places. It does 
not follow the line of the of the present parish road (which, after 
passing the bridge from Ripple, runs in an easterly course to the 
Tewkesbury turnpike-road, between Brockeridge and Shut-honger* 
Commons, where there are lias quarries), but takes a southerly 
direction, parallel with the brook, along an old bridle-road, and 
by the foot of the rising grounds which skirt the vale of the 
Severn. It is traceable in nearly a continuous line all the way 
from the bridge to the foot of Shut-honger Common, where it is 
probably lost under the soil, which, in the course of time, has 
been washed by the rain from the steep of the hill ; but it soon 
appears again at the south-w r est corner of the common, and con- 

* "Honger" from the Saxon "hangra," wMch Morant supposes to 
come from the old word " hangre," a hill.— See Lewis's " Topographical 
Dictionary," relative to Ongar in Essex. Others from " hangra," a meadow 
or grass plot, usually hy the side of a road, the village green. — See " Codex 
Dip." Vol. iii., Preface, p. xxix. With respect to the word " Shut," see Mal- 
vern Hills. 

F 



66 

tinues, in a very perfect state in most parts, all the way to the 
Mythe Tute, where it runs round the north side of that hill near 
to the turnpike-gate, and is now lost ; but it probably extended 
to the Eycknield Street, on the other side of Tewkesbury. 

This road was made of blocks of lias set edgewise against each 
other across the road ; both sides of it have a strong coping or 
edging of larger lias blocks, similarly set in the line of the road, 
a little raised above the cross pieces. This, without the coping, 
is exactly four feet wide ; the coping generally makes it from two 
to four inches more, but at insecure parts the coping was made 
wider with extra blocks to strengthen the work, and the whole 
road is nearly double the usual breadth up the steep at the side 
of the Mythe Tute*. I should think there is scarcely so perfect 
a specimen of an ancient road in any part of the kingdom, as 
from the south-west corner of Shut-honger Common to the Mythe 
Tute. Every one must be struck with the narrowness of this 
paved way ; in fact, no cars, with axle-trees more than four feet 
in length could go upon itf. The most perfect portions of it are 
those which are close to the foot of the rising grounds, and partly 
covered with the detritus from the slopes. Supposing this road really 
went to Pershore, instead of turning along the vales to Kempsey 
and Worcester, it is probable that there was a branch to the latter 
places. I have been informed by several persons that blocks of 
stone, similarly placed, where found about sixteen or eighteen 
years ago at a spot in the Bath Koad, on the Kempsey side of 
Worcester, at the depth of four or five feet in the earth, and 
leading along under the bottom of the hill towards the canal 
basin. Now, although this is not sufficient evidence of such a 
road having passed that way out of Worcester, yet it has con- 
siderable weight ; and it may, perhaps, some time or other, be 
further traced at the foot and beneath the detritus of the rising 
grounds which there skirt the vale of the Severn. 

In the first edition of this work I considered that this was a 

* This hill has all the character of an ancient tumulus, and probably con- 
tained one of Ostorius's forts as it lies iipon the eastern border of the Severn. 
See Eycknield Street. 

+ This, and its occasional sharp turns, show it was only a bridle-road. 



67 

Roman road, but in the " Gentleman's Magazine" for November 
1840, p. 511, it is stated, that a similar fine specimen of a road, 
but of the middle ages " in daily use for foot passengers, may be 
seen on the western road between Came and Chippenham." If, 
however, the road in question is not Roman but medieval, it is 
still worthy of attention-. 

The appearance of Bow Bridge is in many parts very ancient ; 
I allude particularly to its extraordinary parapet, which runs over 
the northern side, and appears to have been intended as a passage 
out of flood's-way, when the water covered the carriage road. 
It seems originally to have been built wholly of lias, but brick- 
work has since been introduced in parts where arches have been 
either cut or repaired, to give passage to the water at the time of 
high flood. One of these arches is in the Anglo-Saxon style, like 
those represented in Bloxam's work on " Gothic Ecclesiastical 
Architecture," p. 28 ; but whether it formed part of the original 
structure, or was introduced at a subsequent period, as well as the 
real age of the most primitive part of the bridge, I must leave to 
those who are skilled in architecture to determine. The arch over 
the rivulet has lately been rebuilt of brick-work. The parapet 
varies from twenty to thirty-six inches in thickness, and there is a 
channel worn along the top of it. It has been repaired from time 
to time at the top, with old tomb-stones, &c. It extends very 
considerably beyond the channel of the stream on either side, to 
the points out of flood's-way, and it is about four hundred and thirty 
feet long, gradually sloping down level with the ground at the 
two ends, and running from four to five feet high towards the 
centre. As this remarkable parapet is very much in the shape 
of a bow, I presume that the bridge was therefore designated by 
that appropriate name. 

There is another circumstance worthy of remark connected 
with these researches, namely, the amount of alluvial soil, or 
detritus, which has accumulated in the vale of the Severn, by the 
occasional floods, since the time of the Romans. At Pitchcroft 
Ham, upon the top of the bed of scoriae and clinkers, at the part 
next the river, the accumulation is six feet thick and upwards ; 

* See further relative to it in the account of the Western Trackwav. 



68 

and on the east side (as appears by the stratum at the bottom of 
the ditch), between three and four feet, the average being about 
four feet, as at Ripple. 

ELDERSFIELD. 

GADBURY BANKS. 

There is a remarkable elevation in this parish called Gadbury 
Banks*, which I examined in company with Mr. Lees. It is 
situated in the centre of what may be called a fine amphitheatre, 
is about sixty feet high, and of an irregular oblong shape, slightly 
rounded at the corners. Judging from a measure we made by 
footsteps around the top of the hill, it is about 360 yards long on 
the south-east side, 230 on the south-west, 390 on the north- 
west, 130 on the north-east, and 112 across the centre. The top 
is a dead level, and was covered with standing corn at the time 
of our visit. The sides are very steep and thickly covered with 
wood, except on the south-west and part of the south-east sides. 
It is admirably situated as a place of refuge, ambush, and strength, 
being in the centre of a basin, and quite detached from the sur- 
rounding elevations. Looking at it from a distance, no one 
would suppose that there is any land free from wood at the top. 
The hills within a few miles of it are the Malvern Hills, May 
Hill, Conygree Hill, Hartpury Hill, Corse Grove, &c. It appears 
to have had a tail lying eastward, which was cut away, except the 
extreme point, and that was probably left as an outwork. There 
is a trench entrance along the site of the tail into the platform 
on the north-east side, and another smaller one at the north-west 
corner. It is thought from its position, &c, to be the site of one 
of the ancient British towns. 

There is a place called Gadbury Hill in Castle Moreton, and 
Gadnals Grove in Sutton in Tenbury, also Gadbidge in Whit 
bourne, in Herefordshire, and Gads Hill, near Rochester, and the 

* Alias Gadbury Hill, or Gadbury Coppice. It is the property of Sir E. H. 
Lecbmere, Bart. A hill situated in Barrow Cliffs, near Scarborough, very 
much corresponds in character with Gadbury Banks. See my accoimt of 
it in the " Archeeologia," Vol. xxx., pp. 461, 462. 



69 

" Codex Dip." mentions Godeshyl (No. 1258); Godshill in the 
Isle of Wight, which Mr. Kemble, in his " Saxons in England," 
Vol. i., p. 345, suggests means the Hill of Woden. There is 
also Goddis Pit in Acton Beauchamp. 

It is probable that Gadbury may be derived from the Saxon 
Geata, who is supposed to be no other than Woden*, although 
he appears in the " West Saxon Genealogy" as a progenitor of 
Woden f. He is mentioned in the " Textus Eoffensis," as being 
so deeply smitten by the beautiful Msethhild, that the pain of 
love took all sleep from him. Asser also says that the heathens 
worshipped him for a god. We meet with Gattibeorh, or the 
burgh of Geat, in the " Codex Diplomatics, " No. 1083; Gatatun 
or Gatton, in Surrey, No. 317; Gattesden now Gaddesden, in 
Hertfordshire, No. 410; and in "Domesday Book," Gadenai 
and Gadenay, in Lincolnshire ; Gadesbi and Gadesbie, in Leices- 
tershire ; Gadetune, in Hants ; Gadintone, in Oxfordshire and 
Northamptonshire ; and Gadredehope, in Herefordshire. 

In the "Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. vi., 
pp. 175 and 239, &c, there are accounts of a very remarkable 
tenure of lands in the manor of Broughton, Lincolnshire, by the 
service of the " gad- whip." A woodcut of one of the whips is 
therein given (p. 245), the handle of which is described as five 
feet eight inches long. These are considered to have been used 
for driving oxen, and that the butt-end of the handle was used 
as a goad, hence the name of gad or goad- whip. 

In some proof that Gadbury Banks is the site of an ancient 
British town, it may be observed that Strabo says, " The forests 
of the Britons are their cities ; for, when they have enclosed a 
very large circuit with felled trees, they build within it houses for 
themselves and hovels for their cattle. These buildings are very 
slight, and not designed for long duration J." 

Caesar remarks, that " what the Britons call a town is a tract of 
woody country, surrounded by a vallum and a ditch, for the 

* See Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. i., p. 370. 

+ See Roger of Wendover's " Flowers of History," formerly ascribed to 
Matthew Paris, by Giles, Vol. L, p. 149. 
X See " Old England," Part i., p. 19. 



70 

security of themselves and cattle against the incursions of their 
enemies*" 

PENDOCK. 

An account of this parish will be found in the descriptions of 
Cruckbarrow Hill and the Rycknield Street. 

THE BERROWf. 

PENDOCK POETWAY. 

We also examined a road, which runs near by Gadbury Banks, 
in the direction of the Malvern Hill Camps at the Herefordshire 
Beacon and Midsummer Hill ; part of it, for about half a mile, 
in the parish of the Berrow, is called the Pendock Portway. 
This is crossed at one end by the Tewkesbury and Ledbury road. 

There is also Port Ridge Field, Little Portridge, and Portnells 
in the Berrow. Vide p. 9, &c. relative to Roman Portways, and 
the account of Hagley and Cruckbarrow Hill. 

BROMSBERROW. 

CONYGREE HILL. 

We also visited a remarkable hill in this parish, which, 
although actually lying in Gloucestershire, is upon the border of 
Worcestershire. It is called Conygree, perhaps from its being a 
fine locality for rabbits, as the soil is of the new red sandstone 
formation, into which they can easily burrow. This elevation, 
which lies near the church, is of an oval form, and about fifty 
feet high. Judging from a measure we made by foot-steps, it is 
about seven hundred yards round the base. There is a very 
ancient yew tree at the top, which measures twenty-five feet 
round the stem, at about a yard from the ground. The whole of 
the hill is planted with trees. The ascent is by a path, which 
winds round the hill to the top from the south side, in an easterly 
direction. A trench encircles the apex, into which the winding 
path runs. It is thought to have been a hill-altar were the 
Druids held an annual assembly for judicial and other purposes. 

* See " Old England," Part i., p. 19. 

+ It was formerly called Berewe, or Berga. 



71 

It might also, although only partially artificial, have been used 
as a barrow, as I have suggested with respect to Cruckbarrow 
Hill. It is remarkable that this hill closely corresponds in cha- 
racter with the following description of Irish crom-lechs in the 
" Archaeologia," Vol. xvi.,p. 268 : — " Taimhleacht Lochlanna, — 
that is to say, ' The Monument of the Danes,' a stupendous and 
beautiful pyramid of earth, having a spiral footway from the base 
to the summit. This Leacht is encircled by an extensive and 
broad rampart of earth, probably where the congregation of the 
people assembled ; by the country people called ' a Mote.' " 



CASTLE MOKTON ; 

OB, MOETON FOLLIOT. 

We also examined a tumulus in this chapelry, of an oval form, 
and situated near the chapel, not far from Buddenhill. It appears 
to be about 190 yards round the base, and thirty yards along the 
top, and is said to be fifty feet in height. It has a deep trench 
round the south side, and an agger fourteen yards across. It is 
called " Castle Tump," and was most probably the foundation of 
the keep of an ancient castle said to have stood there*. 

Dr. Thurnam, in communicating 
to the Archaeological Institute a 
description of an ancient tumulus 
(probably of about the eighth cen 
tury) at Lamel Hill, near York, 
after describing the discovery of 
several relics, states as followsf : — 
" The most interesting object found 
at the same level, is, however, the 
brass seal of the keeper of a chapel 
dedicated to the blessed Mary at 
Morton Folliot. This seal (see the 
woodcut) is probably of the four- 
teenth or fifteenth century, and bears 
the inscription, ' S'. Comune C'todi Capelle be Marie de Mort' 

* Vide Nash, Vol. ii., p. 109. 

+ See the " Journal of the Institute," Vol. ^d., pp. 3.5, 30. 




72 

Folliot.' It has for a device a figure of the Virgin and Child, 
and beneath, that of an ecclesiastic with the hands uplifted in the 
attitude of prayer. It is difficult to understand how this seal 
can have made its way from Morton Folliot in Worcestershire to 
Lamel Hill*. 

" The discovery of this seal, and of counters, at the depth at 
which they were foundf, seems to afford the proof that the upper 
part of this mound has been disturbed within the last 300 years. 
I incline, indeed, to a conjecture that the hill was turned over 
and raised to a greater height by Fairfax's army in 1644, for the 
purpose of obtaining a more commodious site for their battery];." 

Lamel Hill is also further described in the Journal of the 
Institute, Vol. vi., p. 123, &c. 

It has since been doubted whether the seal was found at Lamel 
Hill. This, however, is of little moment, as it is a very interesting 
relic. 

Dr. Nash, in his account of Castle Morton, Vol. i., p. 109, 
says as follows : — 

" This Morton, lying in the parish of Longdon, is comprised 
in " Domesday Book " iu the survey of Longdon §. It is uncer- 
tain whether Castle Morton or Morton Foliot be the original 
name. The hill, which is situated on the south, near the chapel- 
yard of Morton, was the foundation of the keep of the castle, 
and gave name to Castle Morton ; and the castle, as it is formed 
like the Conqueror's castles, was in all probability nearly coeval 
with the Conquest ; and this village is called Morton Foliot in 
the appropriation of Longdon parsonage, which proves that the 
Foliots did anciently inhabit here. We may hence conclude, 
that the Foliots of Morton Foliot were formerly owners of the 
castle of Castle Morton, but that the castle subsisted before their 
time." 

* " Castle Morton, Worcestershire, was anciently known as Morton Folliot." 

+ Seven feet. 

} This seal is also figured and described in the " Proceedings of the Archceo- 
logical Institute at Lincoln, in 1848," p. 4b'. 

§ Part of the possessions of the Monastery of Westminster. See Nash, 
Vol. ii., pp. 107, 114. 



POWICK. 

Two sepulchral Eoman urns, containing burnt human bones, 
were, in or about the year 1832, dug up at Powick village, at 
the point of the tongue of land between the roads leading to 
Upton and Malvern. They lay about nine feet below the 
surface. One of the urns was accidentally broken to pieces ; 
but the other is quite perfect, of a fine shape, made of red 
earth, eleven inches high, and nine inches in diameter; the 
mouth five inches, and the neck and bottom respectively three 
and a half inches across. The perfect urn has a double rim 
round the mouth, two indented lines round the small and thick 
portion of the neck, and two similar lines encircle the part 
which may be termed the shoulder. (See 
woodcut thereof.) The broken urn is one 
inch smaller than the perfect one, a little 
inferior in manufacture, and has only a 
single rim round the mouth, and is without 
the indented lines. These sepulchral urns 
were deposited simply in the ground, with- 
out a tumulus, according to the usual man- 
ner of the Romans. They are now in the 
Worcestershire Museum, and were presented by the late Right 
Honourable the Earl of Coventry. 

A little to the west of the village of Powick, on the brink of 
the same range of elevated ground, two urns, similar in size to 
those already described, were about the year 1833, dug up*; 
they contained the bones of children ; — parts of the cranium, 
with their sutures, and some of the bones of the arm, were, at 
the time they were discovered, entire ; but, having been deposited 
in a wet spot, they, shortly after they were found, crumbled to 
pieces upon exposure to the air. 

A coin of Claudius Gothicus, and of Constantine, jun., were also 
found in the same neighbourhood, and are now in the Worcester 
Museum. 

The village of Powick is three miles from Worcester, and 
situated within a mile of the Teme, on the north, and about the 
same distance from the Severn, on the east. 

* This discovery was made at the time of the additions to Ham Hill 
.House. 




74 



iter 11. 



ECKINGTON. 

Between the village of Eckington and the river Avon, a 
Roman or Roman -British pan or basin, of whitish material, 
was found by the railway excavators, several feet deep in the 
earth. It was presented to the Worcestershire Museum by 
Mr. Milne, one of the contractors, who informed me that 
several ancient foundations of buildings were discovered at 
the same spot. The woodcut No. 1 represents the basin one- 




sixth of the actual size. Nos. 2 and 3 are half-size sketches 
of two marks which are upon the rim of the basin near the 
spout. 

A basin, nearly similar, is delineated in " Old England," Part 
ii., p. 44, amongst a collection entitled, " Roman Antiquities 
found on the site of Paul's Cross." A fragment of another, 
which was found about 1778, on digging at Duntocher, in 
Stirlingshire, together with other pottery and relics, said to be 
Roman, may be seen in Gough's " Camden*," where it is 

* Second edition, Vol. vi., PL vi., p. 103. Also see the edition of 1789, 
Vol. iii, p. 362. 



75 

described as "a piece of a vase, like our wash-hand basins* of 
white clay, which has the maker's name in raised capitals on the 
rim,—' BKVSC . F,' for 'Brusci filius.-j-'" 

AD ANTONAM. 

There has been much dispute concerning the position of this 
Roman station ; it most probably lay near to the village of Eck- 
ington, where ancient foundations were discovered by the work- 
men in the line of the railway near the Avon, as before described. 
Upon an inspection of this spot, I found it to be about two 
hundred yards from the north side of the village, and within 
three-quarters of a mile of the river. Mr. Milne and one of 
the workmen pointed out to me where the relics lay, and informed 
me that during the cutting for the railroad they discovered there, 
at the depth of several feet, a great many human bones, frag- 
ments of pottery, drains, bricks, stone foundations of buildings, 
and a rough quoined well, about four feet wide and ten feet deep, 
which passed through about four feet of soil and six feet of gravel, 
and was filled up with earth and rubble, having fragments of the 
bones and horns of the ox and deer species at the bottom, which 
was shaped like a basin ; and that two other quoined wells 
were discovered there, filled with blackish earth. I found some 
specimens of the pottery in the mound of earth and gravel 
which had been thrown out there, some resembling the Roman 
or Roman-British pan, before described, as discovered at this 
excavation, and others exactly like the Roman red earth pottery 
which I found at KempseyJ. See further particulars relative 
to " Ad Antonam," in the account of the Rycknield Street, 
where the subject comes more regularly under notice. 

STRENSHAM. 

There is an old trench road which passes not far from the 
cottage where Butler, the author of " Hudibras," is said to have 

* Tliey are by some antiquaries described as " mortaria." 
t Or it may mean, Bruscus fecit. 
I Sec page 54, &c. 



76 

been born, and through a pasture on the south side of the Moat 
Farm-house, and up what is called Green Hill and the Park 
Grounds, to that part of the hill where Strensham Church stands, 
and from thence most probably it crossed the Avon, at one of the 
fords, to Eckington. G. Bryan, Esq., of the Moat Farm, and 
Dr. Grove, the rector of Strensham parish, kindly pointed out to 
me the above line of intrenchment from the pasture to near the 
church. Before leaving this farm, I must notice that there is a 
double moat, forming nearly a square, at the eastern side of the 
house, with a high ridge between the moats. The present old 
house is supposed to have been built of the materials of the 
ancient (perhaps baronial) seat, which no doubt stood in the 
centre of the moats. This property belongs to John Taylor, Esq., 
of Strensham Court*. 

NORTON IN BREDON. 

In this chapelry have been found various Anglo-Saxon relics, 
consisting of several iron bosses or umbos of shields, and spear- 
heads, a knife, fragments of a sword, with part of the scabbard 
mounted in brass, and a blue and a reddish-yellow bead. These 
were presented to the Museum of the Worcestershire Natural 
History Society, in the year 1.838, by one of the engineers em- 
ployed in making the Birmingham and Gloucester railway. They 
were discovered by the workmen whilst excavating at Norton 
Pitch, a place near to Bredon Hill, upon which there is the site 
of an ancient camp, hereafter described. 

I am informed by an experienced jeweller that one of the above- 
mentioned beads is malachite, and the other amber; they are 
rather flattened, and perforated in the centre. Malachite, 
although generally green (as the name from the Greek, " marsh- 
mallow," indicates), is still found, massive and of a smalt-blue 
colour, in Cornwall f. 

These relics are represented in Plate 3, one-sixth of the real 
size, except the beads (Nos. 12 and 13), which are of the actual 

* Strensham is supposed to be the Strengesho in Eadgar's Charter, a.d. 
972. See « Codex Dip.," No. 570. 

+ Vide " An Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy," by Mr. Wm. Phillips, 
fourth edition, enlarged by Mr. Eobert Allan, p. 320. 



PUte.J.p76. 




f.JJajire liffi 



driti^pziMes frvrn ffloriorL uu Brcdon 



77 

size. One of the umbos still contains a rivet which fastened it 
to the shield ; but the umbos, spear-heads, knife, and blade of the 
sword are a complete mass of incrusted rust. The scabbard of 
the sword is so decayed that it appears like touchwood, and the 
mounting of it, which is either brass, copper, or bronze, is almost 
reduced to a powder, resembling verdigris. Fig. 6, which is 
plated with silver, was at first supposed to have been the button 
or stud which attached the scabbard to the belt, because there is 
an impression of part of the head of the stud upon the scabbard ; 
it is more probable, however, that it was one of the studs which 
fastened the umbo to the shield, and that the impression was 
made by the scabbard having lain in the earth upon the stud. 
The latter has the shank or rivet attached to it (which is of an 
oblong square shape), and also a fragment of iron and wood. The 
iron most probably being part of the umbo, and the wood a por- 
tion of the wooden shield. 

In Vol. xv. of the " Archaeologia," Plates xviii. and xix. p. 344, 
there are relics very similar to some of the above-mentioned, 
which were found in Sherrington Barrow, Wiltshire ; among 
them was a bit of silver, which is supposed to have covered the 
projecting part of the umbo of the shield. See also the " Pro- 
ceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London," in 1843, 1844, 
No. 2, p. 29, where in describing some relics discovered at Stow- 
ting, in Kent, said to be Anglo-Saxon, it is stated that " the 
weapons are all of iron, some of the bosses of shields have the 
summit of the umbo plated with silver, and were attached to the 
wooden shield by silver-headed rivets, or studs. A few similar 
instances have occurred in other parts of England ; but the curious 
fact, that the art of plating silver upon iron was known at a very 
early period, has never been noticed as it deserves." 

In the "Journal of the Archaeological Institute*" there is an 
account of Anglo-Saxon relics found at Long Wittenham, Co. 
Berks, among which there are iron studs plated with silver, 
attached to bits of iron, which the writer supposes to be parts of 
the umbo or boss of the shield. 

* Vol. v., pp. 291, 292, 293. 



7S 

Several relics corresponding to some of those found at Norton 
Pitch were discovered in the neighbourhood of Fairford, in 
Gloucestershire, and are described in the " Archseologia," Vol. 
xxxiv., pp. 77 to 82. 

BKEDON HILL, 

IN THE PARISH OF KEMERTON. 

At a land-slip at the top of Breclon Hill, which happened at 
the beginning of the present century*, a considerable quantity of 
wheat, of a parched appearance, and which had been buried in the 
earth, was discovered. This is supposed to have been an ancient 
granary, but of what people is uncertain. A specimen of the 
wheat was presented to the Worcester Museum by Mrs. Davies, 
of Elmley Park-f. Wishing to know the particulars, I wrote to 
Mr. William Prior, of Kemerton, who, in reply, informed me 
that about thirty-five or forty years ago, after a very wet season, 
as the late Miss Martin, of Norton, was riding along the parapet 
on the top of Bredon Hill, in the field called Kemerton Camp, 
her horse began to sink into the ground suddenly and rapidly ; 
that she however kept her seat, and the horse, which had gone 
down about four or five feet below the level of the firm ground, 
sprang up and regained his footing. That so soon as Miss 
Martin had recovered from her surprise, she saw that a land-slip 
had occurred, and that she had landed on the firm side of the 
chasm, which at that time opened about thirty feet wide at the 
surface, and about forty feet deep J ; but that it is since partially 
filled up by the crumbling down of the sides. That he was at 
the house of the late James Martin, Esq., of Overbury, some few 
weeks afterwards, when a portion of the parched wheat, found 
in the excavation, was shown to him and some other gentlemen, 
and the general opinion was, that it was a part of the stores left 

* About the beginning of the last century, a hillock on the side of the hill, 
containing about an acre, with its trees and cattle, slipped nearly 100 yards 
down. — (See Laird's "Topographical and Historical Description of Worcester- 
shire," p. 364.) 

+ Now Lady Pakington. 

I Some say the chasm was about 200 yards long. 



79 

behind by the Komans, Saxons, or Danes, at the time when they 
were there encamped. That in this opinion the late Dr. Nash, 
who was then present, coincided, and said that there could be no 
other way of accounting for it. That a few years after, whilst 
ploughing the Camp Field, some ancient swords mounted with 
brass were discovered, which the late John Parsons, Esq., of 
Kemerton, claimed, as Lord of the Manor, and afterwards gave 
to his house steward, the late Mr. Blomer. 

Whether these swords were of as early a date as the Eoman, 
Saxon, or Danish time, I cannot ascertain ; but I have two swords 
which were found in the Camp Field when it was ploughed up, of 
the age of one of the Charles's, and this goes to show that the 
Camp was also used during the Civil Wars. 

I was informed by Mr. Moore, Jun., of Elmley, that the wheat 
which he saw 7 taken from the land-slip on Bredon Hill, consisted 
of a few grains found promiscuously in the broken earth, about 
the year 1836 ; that he did not see any fragments of either straw 
or ears ; that the grains were black, or nearly so, and that a 
slight pressure between the ringers would reduce them to a powder ; 
but that the form of the grain was quite perfect. He also added 
that he was lately informed that as the chasm opened it exposed 
to view a vein of black earth, about four or five inches thick, 
immediately under the soil which in some places, was not more 
than six inches deep, but varied to eighteen inches or two feet ; 
that the black earth was supposed to be decayed wheat, as quan- 
tities of perfect grains were found in it ; that there was no appear- 
ance of straw or ears of corn ; and that the chasm beneath, on both 
sides, was a solid but craggy rock, impossible ever to have been 
opened before. 

From the above account it does not appear that in this case 
there was any chamber or vault in which the corn was deposited, 
but that it lay under the earth upon the ledge of the rock along 
the brow of the hill. Perhaps this was the spot where it was 
either charred or deposited in small quantities for immediate use, 
and that there was a more regular granary at or near the spot. 
This idea appears to be in a measure corroborated by what 
has been before stated relative to ancient granaries, in p. 61, — 



80 

namely, " that the shelved cavities of the rock were believed to 
be receptacles for food in small portions." 

That there was a regular granary at the spot in question, or at 
least a cave which might have been used as such, is quite evident 
from the following passage in Dr. Derham's " Physico-Theology," 
who, in speaking of caves containing stalactites and stalagmites, 
in p. 70, says : — 

" Such like caves as these I have myself met with in England; 
particularly on the very top of Bredon Hill in Wocestershire, 
near the precipice, facing Pershore, in or near the old fortress, 
called Bemsbury Camp, I saw some years ago such a cave, 
which, if I mis-remember not, was lined with those stalactical 
stones on the top and sides. On the top they hung like icicles, 
great and small, and many lay on the ground. They seemed 
manifestly to be made by an exudation or exstillation of some 
petrifying juices out of the rocky earth there. On the spot, I 
thought it might be from the rains soaking through, and carrying 
with it impregnations from the stone, the hill being there all 
rocky. Hard by the cave is one or more vast stones, which, if I 
mistake not, are incrusted with this sparry, stalactical substance, 
if not wholly made of it*." 

From the above account (which was written about 1712) it is 
evident that the cave lay on the Worcestershire side of the Camp, 
and near to the place where the charred wheat was found ; for the 
learned Doctor not only says it was " in or near the old fortress 
called Bemsbury Camp," but that " hard by the cave, is one or 
more vast stones," meaning, no doubt, the immense stone there 
called the Bambury Stone, which, with its companions, I shall 
hereafter more particularly describe in the account of the 
" Ambrosiae Petrse." The cave probably was destroyed by one of 
the land-slips before stated. 

With respect to both ancient and modern granaries, the fol- 
lowing may be added upon the subject : — 

In " Malcolm's Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of 

* These stoues, and the rock beneath them, are porous freestone, called 
inferior oolite, and being charged with lime, would form stalactites, &c, as 
above described. 



81 

London from the Eonian invasion to the year 1700. He says 
(Vol i. p. 13), " We are not informed how they (the ancient 
Britons) used their grain ; whether it was made into anything 
like bread, eaten raw, or prepared by fire : their method of pre- 
serving it was by putting it into subterraneous receptacles, in the 
ear, and thrashing it daily as they wanted it. Now, it appears 
doubtful whether any possible means could be contrived to pre- 
vent wheat, thus circumstanced, from becoming absolutely mouldy 
and decayed, and utterly unfit for food, certainly for seed, in our 
humid climate." 

Perhaps the best answer to the above is, that the ancient 
Britons parched their corn before placing it in subterranean 
granaries for long keeping* ; but whether it was parched in the 
ear and then thrashed out, or parched after it was thrashed, may 
be a question. 

Dr. Adam Clarke f says, " According to Mr. Jones, the Moors 
of West Barbary use the flour of parched barley, which is the 
chief provision they make for their journeys, and often use it at 
home ; and this they carry in a leathern satchel." 

In "A Narrative of Ten Years in Tripoli," by Kichard Tully, 
Esq., the British Consul J, Letter of April 20, 1784, p. 49, he 
remarks, " We passed through a street [in Tripoli] noted for its 
corn-wells, or rather caverns, dug very deep in the earth. They 
are situated on each side of the street, at about thirty yards 
distance. They are designed for magazines to lay up corn in, 
where they say it will keep perfectly good 100 years." 

Dr. Nash, in Vol. ii., page 234, speaks of Kemerton Camp as 
follows : — " On Kemerton Hill, in Gloucestershire, though only 
a few yards distant from Worcestershire, is a large camp, of a 
triangular shape, two sides of which are defended by the steep 
precipice at Bredon Hill, looking to the north and west ; the 
south and east sides are guarded by two ditches, about twenty 

* Similar subterranean granaries are mentioned by Tacitus in bis account 
of tbe customs of the Germans. See " Gentleman's Mag." for Nov. 1840, p. 511. 

f Commentary on tbe 28tb verse of tbe 27tb cbapter of tbe Second Book 
of Samuel. 

I Second edition, published 1817. 

G 



82 

yards wide each* ; the whole ground within the camp is upwards 
of twenty-one acres. It was ploughed two or three years ago, 
and several iron weapons found, of so rude and bad workmanship, 
as bespoke them rather Danish or Saxon than Koman. A plan 
of it is here given f." 

Upon a visit which I made in 1840 to Kemerton Camp, I 
found the intrenchments in most parts to be still very deep and 
perfect];. The land-slip is also yet visible. The scene we 
witnessed from the summit of this hill was (owing principally to 
a heavy storm which came on) truly magnificent ; and upon its 
partially clearing up, the sun, which was fast declining westward, 
broke through the murky clouds in that direction, and scattered 
" the many hues of heaven" over the whole expanse between us 
and the Malverns, and painted upon the dark curtain towards the 
Cotswolds a splendid double rainbow ; while the Avon shone in 
silvery whiteness, and seemed in imagination to be like the 
wand of Shakespeare calling up the genii around to meet in the 
" bloody field by Tewkesbury." 

In the Corrections and Additions to Nash's " History," Vol. ii., 
p. 29, the learned Dr. remarks : — " It is the general practice of 
antiquaries to refer all the intrenchments which are found on 
hills, &c, either to Koman, Saxon, or Danish invaders, without 
reflecting that the unfortunate inhabitants thus invaded, whether 
Britons or Anglo-Saxons, had both more leisure and more pressing 
occasion to prepare such fastnesses and places of retreat for their 
wives, children, flocks, and herds, &c, when their country was 
likely to be overrun by these cruel invaders. The first Saxons 
were near two centuries in subduing, extirpating, and expelling 
the Britons ; w T ho, before they were entirely destroyed or driven 
out from their native plains, we know, made many vigorous 
struggles in their defence ; and, in the intervals of the successive 



* And also two aggers. 

f See woodcut of it in the account of the " Ambrosiae Petrae." 

% It is, however, to be feared that the young trees which have lately been 

planted in the trenches of the camp will, in course of time, very much destroy 

its appearance. 



83 

attacks made upon them, would doubtless fortify the heights in 
every part of the kingdom that could afford them any place of 
refuge or asylum to retire to from the open country, which could 
not be defended when those furious assailants made their de- 
structive inroads. The same retreats would, in like manner, 
serve for shelter afterwards to the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants, when 
invaded by the Danes, and perhaps be fortified with additional 
intrenchments. Such I judge to have been the origin and use of 
these vast lines, &c, on Kemerton Hill, and of many similar 
ones in other parts of the kingdom, as on Borough Hill, near 
Daventry," &c. &c. 

In the " Archssologia," Vol. xix., p. 172, it is stated, that 
" Bredon Hill is not a part of the Cots wold Hills. It stands in 
the vale by itself, and on it is an intrenchment of about 170 
yards by 130. On two adjoining sides, the brow of the hill is 
a sufficient defence ; on the other two, it is defended by two 
banks and ditches, which are near fifty yards asunder, and not 
straight or quite regular. Were they then thrown up at different 
times ? The entrance is at one corner. Drakestone, Uley Bury, 
Broadridge Green, Painswick Beacon, Church Down, Whitcombe, 
Crickley Hill, and Nottingham Hill, are seen from it." 

As the Koman camps are generally square or oblong, with the 
angles obtuse or rounded off ; and, as the camp in question is of 
a rather triangular shape, it is probable that it is ancient British, 
and that it was in after ages occupied by the Romans, Saxons, and 
Danes. 

Mr. May, in his " History of Evesham," p. 365, in speaking 
of the Roman occupation of Bredon Hill, says, it " abounds with 
copious and unfailing springs ; and a vast number of coins, of 
the higher as well as lower empire, have, during late years, been 
ploughed up there. Among such of these as the writer has 
hitherto met with, occur those of Vespasian, Severus, Gallienus, 
Constantine, and Valentinian." 

An earring of silver (weight 60 gr.) was found with Roman 
brass coins of Allectus, Quintillus, and Constans, the acus of a 
fibula, and a silver penny of one of the Edwards, in a field 




84 

called Nettlebed, upon the Beckford Estate, situate on the south 
side of Bredon Hill, near the ancient camp. On 
the lower part of the ring appears a cavity formed 
to receive a gem*. (See the woodcut.) 

With respect to the etymology of the word 
" Bredon," Dr. Nash says, the hill was anciently 
called Breodum ; and, that " Bullet in his 
' Memoires de la Langue Celtique,' says, Breeden 
may be the name of a great forest : Braidd, 
Great; and Den, Forest." " Breedon has also 
been observed to signify a place at the root of a 

hill; Braidd, extremity; and Don, Hillf." 

This latter appears to be the better etymology, as the village 

of Bredon ]; lies at the bottom of the hill. 

BREDON HILL, CONDERTON. 

In Dr. Nash's account of the parish of Overbury, he says : — 
" On Conderton Hill is a small oval camp, one hundred and 
sixty-five yards long, and seventy-one yards wide : tradition, 
which is better than conjecture, supposes it to be Danish. 
Some few Roman coins have been found in the fields." (Vide 
Vol. ii., p. 234.) 

Mr. Bennett, in his " History of Tewkesbury," p. 17, says : — 
" In the neighbourhood of these (i.e. the Kemerton and Conder- 
ton) camps, especially near the latter, a number of Roman coins 
have at various times been discovered." 

* See my account in the " Archaeological Journal," Vol. iii. pp. 267, 268. 

+ See Nash's " History," Vol. i., p. 128. 

I The name is spelled Breodun in several Anglo-Saxon Charters. See 
" Codex Dip." No. 120 ; 120 App., Vol. iii., 138, 140, 145, 148,248, 261, 514. 
514 App., Vol. vi., and 674, 805. That work also notices Bredun in the 
Charters, No. 984, 990 (Bradden in Northamptonshire), and Breowoldsham, 
No. 1309. The names Uferebreodun and Uuerabreodun (Upper Bredon) 
occur in the Charters, No. 308, 308 App., Vol. iii. ; and 514, 514 App., Vol. 
vi., and in Heming's " Cartulary," p. 520 ; and Overbury is called Ufere- 
hreodun in that work, p. 306, &c. 



85 



SEDGEBARROW. 

In Mr. May's "History of Evesham," second edition, 1845, 
p. 365, it is stated that, " upon deepening the channel of the 
brook at Sedgebarrow, about eighteen years ago, two oval-shaped 
spear-heads of bronze, of most perfect workmanship, with 
portions of their staves attached, were found stuck into the 
bank, at a depth of several feet. Pieces of Roman defensive 
armour were likewise found ; together with the sharpened half of 
a celt, formed of basalt, and a portion of another ; as though 
the rude Britain and the polished Roman had fallen here 
together in the death-struggle, each leaving his weapon to tell 
of the event. These fragments, together with part of a steel 
band, apparently from the shoulder, and retaining the bronze 
rivets that attached it to the cuirass, are in the possession of the 
Rev. William Pashley. Several very large antlers were dug out 
at the same time ; but, strange to say, no pains were taken to 
preserve these memorials of the wild denizens of our ancient 
forests." 

ICCOMB. 

This was a detached parish of Worcestershire, until annexed 
to Gloucestershire by the Reform Bill. In describing this 
parish, which lies near Stow, in Gloucestershire, Dr. Nash 
says : — " Here is a camp, supposed to be Danish : it has a single 
ditch, which in many places is ploughed down*." 

Iccomb was anciently spelled Iccacumb, Icancumbf, Ican- 
cumbe, Icomb, Iccecumbe, Icacub, Ickacumb, Yccacumbe, 
Ycumb, and Ikecumbe. 

FOUR SHIRE STONE. 

This stone, which stands near Moreton-in-the-Marsh, in the 
counties of Worcester, Gloucester, Warwick, and Oxford, is 
stated in Laird's " Topographical and Historical Description of 

* See Nash, Vol. ii., p. 1. 

+ See " Codex Dip.," Offa's Charter, No. 146, and Edgar's Charter, No. 514, 
514 App. Vol. vi., dated 964; also see Nash, Vol. ii., p. 1. The authenticity 
of the above-mentioned Charter of Eadgar is doubted. See " Oswaldslow." 



86 

Worcestershire*," to be " situated on the spot where the battle 
was fought, about 1016, between the English and Danes, when 
the latter, under Canute, were totally defeated with great slaugh- 
ter by King Edmund Ironside;" and that " there also, at a 
small distance, is a fortification or barrow, which Camden and 
Plott consider as of Danish origin, but Gough seems of a different 
opinion, and considers it as British." 

The above-mentioned fortification or barrow is, I presume, that 
situated in the piece of land called Barrow Ground, and lies at 
the southern corner of Chastleton parish, Oxon. about two miles 
from the Four Shire Stone, which stands at the northern extre- 
mity of the parish. The field is bounded on the west and south- 
west by Freeboard Lane, which divides it from Adlestrop, and 
southward and eastward by Daylesford and Corn well. The forti- 
fication or barrow is nearly a circle, and including the single 
agger or mound which surrounds it, contains 176 yards in 
diameter from the north-west to the south-east side, and 165 
yards in diameter from the south-west to the north-east side. 
The area, which is perfectly flat, amounts to half an acre and 
sixteen perches. The agger is thirty feet wide and about sixteen 
feet high on the outside of it, the ground within it being about 
eight feet higher than the surrounding land. In the Ordnance 
Map it is called Chastleton Hill Camp, but the name " Barrow 
Ground," and the very circular character of the agger appear to 
favour the idea of its having originally been a barrow. It may, 
however, have been afterwards used as a camp by the Eomans, 
Saxons, or Danes. A bye-way passes through it from east to 
west, which is the " regular direction of the Praetorian way in a 
Eoman Campf." 

On the brow of the hill range, between Bourton-on-the-Hill and 
Cutsdean, there are several camps, or earth-works, of a square 
shape, with a rivulet running along a dell on their west side. 
This dell is called Kill-Danes-Bottom |. 

* Pp. 394, 395. 

+ See " Gentleman's Mag." for June, 1842, p. 622. 

I Vide under the head of Ambrosise Petrae, for the description of a place 
called Woeful-Danes Bottom. 



87 

In the explanation of the Saxon map in Gough's " Camden*," 
it is stated that Camden, in his " Notes on the Saxon Chronicle," 
places Scierydan at the above-mentioned Shire Stone. 

DORN. 

This hamlet is in the detached parish of Blockley, belonging 
to Worcestershire, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh. It is stated by 
Cookef, that " The Fosse- way runs out of Gloucestershire 
through the village of Dorn. According to tradition, this village 
was formerly a city of some consequence ; and the many old 
foundations, and Roman and British coins found in this neigh- 
bourhood, seem to countenance the probable truth of the report. 
At present, however, Dorn can only boast the possession of a few 
farm-houses." 

Nash]; says, that " Dorn is supposed to have been a Roman 
station. Many small coins of base metal have been found here. 
One of Carausius was lately in the possession of the Rev. Mr 
Selwyn, the vicar." " Dorn has its name from a little stream 
running here, called Duran, which, in the ancient Celtic, signifies 
'rivulus,' or little stream^." Nash|| likewise informs us, that 
" The Rev. Mr. Miles, of Worcester, had several Roman coins 
found at Dorn : the earliest was a denarius of Severus ; the 
latest, a brass coin of Crispus. Among them were Etruscilla, 
Carausius, Allectus, &c, of brass." 

BADSEY. 

Mr. May IT, describing various ancient relics found in this 
parish, states that, " at about a mile's distance eastward from 
Badsey Church, upon a farm occupied by Mr. Gibbs, of Knowle 
Hill, and seated on a gentle slope, is a field now called ' Foxhill.' 



* Vol. i. Int. p. clxiv. 

+ " Topographical Library," title Worcestershire, p. 108. 

\ Vol. i., p. 101. 

§ Baxter's " Glossarium Antiquit. Brit.," p. 11. 

|| Vol. ii., p. 20, of the Corrections and Additions. 

% May's " History of Evesham," second edition, p. 244. 



88 

Here pieces of coarse, dark, gritty pottery are widely strewn, 
intermixed with fragments of finer quality, coloured red. Human 
bones, in beds, and those of animals, apart from the former, 
intermixed with antlers of deer and the horns of small cattle, 
have also been recently disturbed. Rude slabs of stone, occa- 
sionally laid kiln-wise, and bearing marks of fire, have likewise 
been exposed. These we at first regarded as places where the 
ware was baked ; but Mr. Gibbs remarks, that the soil being 
wholly upon gravel, there is no material for pottery any where 
near. No coins appear to be found here, with the exception of 
one of those small copper Constantines that elsewhere commonly 
occur ; but what is perhaps earlier than our Roman coinage — a 
rude bead or annulet of pared bone, one inch in diameter, and a 
fourth of an inch thick, has been preserved. As soon as the 
present crop will permit, Mr. Gibbs intends to open the ground 
for careful examination. Meanwhile, from what we have hitherto 
seen, we are disposed to regard the site as that of a British 
settlement ; but whether so occupied before the Roman invasion, 
we are not at present prepared to assert." 

In 709, Coenraed, Cenred, or Kenred, aud Offa, granted lands 
in Baddesig to the monastery which Bishop Egwin intended to 
found at Evesham*. 

CHURCH HONEYBOURNE, AND QUINTON WAY. 

It is stated in the " Rambler in Worcestershire," by Mr. 
Noakef, that " a human skeleton, a spear-head, together with 
several swords, and some other relics," were dug out in the line 
of road near the church in this parish. 

In Church Honeybourne there is a road called the Quinton 
Way, near Podon, or Podenj, and not far from Selenslode and 
Hollow Breche, as appears by Terriers, in the " Registry of the 

* May's " Evesham," p. 24. Also Nash, Vol. ii., p. 52 ; Dugd. " Monast.," 
Vol. i., p. 145 ; and " Codex Dip.," Charters of Coenraed, No. 61, 61 App., Vol. 
iii., dated 709. Of " Egwi," No. 64, dated 714 ; and of " Eadweard," No. 
289, 289 App., Vol. iii., dated 860-865. 

+ Published in 1848, p. 230. 

+ See the account of Old Storage, as to this name. 



89 

Consistory Court of Worcester," of the date of 1585 and 1715. 
This road was most probably a branch from the Buckle Street, 
or Boggilde Street*, and led from Church Honeybourne, by 
Meon Hill Camp, to Quinton Field, which lies about three miles 
to the north-east in Gloucestershire. A mile further on is a 
place called Upper Quinton, and about the same distance further 
is Lower Quinton. There can be little cause to hesitate in 
saying that these villages took their names from the above-named 
Quinton Field, where the game of quintan was no doubt played. 
The name of this place is written " Cwentun," in " Codex 
Dip.," No. 244. 

There are places called Upper Quinton and Lower Quinton in 
Bockelton ; Quinton Oak in Northfield ; Twinton in Upton 
Warren ; the Quintins in Kempsey ; Quinton in Holt with 
Little Witley ; Quinton Piece in Romsley, in Hales Owen ; 
First Quinton Field, Upper Quinton Field, and Lower Quinton, 
in Warley Wigorn, in Hales Owen ; and First Quinton Field in 
Bidgacre, in Hales Owen — all in Worcestershire : and Near 
Quanton Croft and Far Quanton Croft, in Arley, Co. Warwick. 

In " Domesday Book," mention is made of " Quenintone," 
and " Quenintune," in Gloucestershire ; and " Quintone " in 
Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. 

As some of my readers may not be acquainted with the 
nature of the game of quintan, I shall subjoin the following 
extract upon the subject, from Malcolm's " Anecdotes of the 
Manners and Customs of London, from the Boman Invasion to 
the year 1700," Vol. iii., p. 8. 

" The quintain, mentioned by Howe, had its origin from a 
whimsical idea ; and those who practised with it were compelled 
to exert no trifling degree of agility to avoid the heavy blows it 
inflicted. 

" In this instance, a strong post was placed erect in the 
ground, on which a piece of wood turned by means of a spindle ; 
at one extremity a bag of sand was suspended, and the other 
presented a surface sufficiently broad to make it practicable to 

* Described in the account of the Lower Salt Way. 



90 

strike it with a spear when in full gallop on horseback ; the 
pressure from the spear caused an instantaneous whirl of the 
wood, which was increased by the weight of the sand, and that 
saluted the back of the horseman in no very gentle manner, if 
the speed of his courser happened to be less than that of the 
quintain." 

OFFENHAM. 

In this parish (the alleged residence of the Saxon king, Offa) 
two coins, one of Faustina II., the other of Canute, were a few 
years since dug up at the Court Farm House, near the Moat. 
The obverse of the latter contains the head of the king, with his 
sceptre and the inscription, CNVT KECX (Cnut Eex.) in Saxon 
characters ; and the reverse bears a Saxon cross, with the mint- 
master's name and the place of mintage — namely, BRVNCAK 
ON LVND, which some say means Bruncar in London, but I 
have it on very good authority that, as the moneyer's name is 
Bruncar, it is most likely a Danish coin struck at Lund in 
Schonen. These coins were in the possession of the late Rev. 
Mr. Digby, of Offenham, Canon of Worcester Cathedral. The 
parish is called Uffenham and Offeham in several Anglo-Saxon 
Charters*, and Off enha in " Domesday Book." It signifies the 
ham of Offa. 

There is a place called Dead Men's Aitf in Offenham, where 
bones have been dug up, supposed to have been those of some of 
the slain at the battle of Evesham. 

" On the north side of the village there is a large stone, 
almost overgrown with ivy ; it has no inscription remaining, 
but has been supposed to be a memorial set up in the rudest 
timesj." 

The following extract from Dr. Nash's " History §" may be taken 
in proof that Offa had property in Offenham : — " Kenred, King of 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 61, 61 App., Vol. iii., pp. 289 and 789. 
+ Or Island. 

I See Laird's " Topographical and Historical Description of Worcester- 
shire," pp. 375, 388. 
§ Vol. ii., p. 202. 



91 

the Mercians, and Offa, King of the East Angles, gave to the 
Abbey of Evesham seven mansse in Offenham. This Offa and 
King Kenred were the greatest benefactors to the Abbey. They 
died monks at Eome. In " Domesday" we read, the church of 
Evesham held Offenham ; there is one hide free." 

CLEEVE PEIOR. 

In the year 1811, two jars of Eoman coins were found in this 
parish. The following letter upon the subject, from the late E. 
Rudge, Esq., of Evesham, appeared in the " Gentleman's Maga- 
zine" for December of that year :- — 

" Wimpole Street, Nov. 15. 

" Mr. Urban, — I send you an account of the discovery of two 
earthen pots, the one containing gold and the other silver Eoman 
coins, found by a labourer while digging stone in a quarry at 
Priors Cleeve, about five miles from Evesham, Worcestershire, on 
the 22nd of October last ; the pots are of red earthenware, and I 
am informed are about eighteen inches wide, and about the same 
height. They were full of coins, which poured out from the pots 
when broken by the stroke of the pick-axe. The quantity of gold 
coin was as much as the fortunate discoverer could carry home at 
twice. They are of very pure gold, in the most perfect state of 
preservation ; but amongst them are several of copper plated with 
gold. The silver coins are worn, and appear to have been in 
circulation. There can be little doubt but these coins were de- 
signed for the payment of the Eoman troops stationed in that 
part of Britain, and may have been buried about the year 403, 
during the various disturbances which existed at that period. 
. " In 1781, fifty gold coins were dug up in Stanmore Common, 
near Bentley Priory, and' amongst them were several of Valen- 
tinian and Gratian, similar to those described below. The fol- 
lowing inscriptions I have copied from such as I have seen, and 
which are but few, for the discoverer, apprehending a claim from 
the Lord of the Manor, refused soon after their discovery, any 
information respecting them ; so that whether there were other 
coins in the pots than what I have described, remains to be 
ascertained. 



92 

" Situation of the pots when discovered. — The pots stood upon 
stone of eight inches in depth, in a stratum of clay of eighteen 
inches ; over the pots was placed stone of four inches in depth, 
and above that the natural soil, sixteen inches deep from the 
surface." 

Mr. Kudge then fully detailed the inscriptions which were 
upon the coins. The names of the emperors are as follow : — 

GOLD COINS. SILVER COINS. 

Valentinianus I. ■ Constantius. 

Gratianus. Julianus. 

Valentinianus, jun. Valentinianus I. 

Theodosius I. Gratianus. 

Mag. Maximus. 

Theodosius I. 

Mr. Kudge also communicated the particulars to the Society 
of Antiquaries*, and added that the coins were found on the site 
of a Eoman road leading from Camden to Alcesterf. 

Mr. May, in his " History of Evesham," published in 1834, 
states that the spot where the coins were found lies " a very few 
yards west of the existing road, at its entrance into Cleeve from 
Middle Littleton," and mentions a coin of Constantine as one of 
the number ; he also suggested, that they " might possibly have 
been secreted by some Roman commander prior to an encounter, 
in which his forces were routed, and himself slain." 

In the " Companion to Greenwood's Map" it is stated that a 
goldsmith of London " offered the finder three hundred pounds 
for them, which he refused." The discovery is also noticed in the 
"Worcester Journal" for the 31st of October, 1811, where it is 
stated, that " counterfeits were discovered among them, executed 
in a most excellent manner, being copper plated with gold. The 
silver coins were not in so good preservation as the gold. The 
execution of these coins is of course not very good, the art of 
cutting the dies being at that period very much upon the decline. 
The man has acknowledged that he found one hundred of the gold 
coins ; the silver most probably greatly exceeded that number." 

* Vide " Archaeologia," Vol. xvii., pp. 329, 330. 

t See further relative to that road in the account of the Kycknield Street. 



The Rev. R. D. Stillingfleet, Vicar of Cleeve Prior, in answer 
to some inquiries I made respecting the coins, stated that Thomas 
Sheppey, the man who found them in the first instance, conveyed 
them secretly to his own house ; that he afterwards took them to the 
Dean and Chapter of Worcester, (the Lords of the Manor), who, 
after reserving a few of the coins, returned him the remainder. 
Mr. Stillingfleet further added, that " there was a discovery made 
near the village, in the year 1824, of a number of human skeletons, 
on a bank immediately above the river Avon, and not very remote 
from the field in which the coins were found." 

I have seen several of these coins in the possession of the Rev. 
Allen Wheeler, of Worcester, and the Rev. Wm. Brown, of Bredi- 
cot ; in addition to some of the above, they have coins of Valens, 
Valerian, D.N. Fl. Victor, and Gordianus Pius. 

Sheppey stated that a goat's head was found in the excavation, 
which was perhaps a votive offering made upon depositing the coins. 

After writing the above, I went to Cleeve Prior, and saw at the 
Rev. Mr. Stillingfleet 's, in addition to those previously mentioned, 
a gold coin of Arcadius, and two silver coins, one of Vespasian, 
and another which I could not decipher. T. Sheppey, the finder 
of the urns and coins, informed me that the quantity of gold 
coins found in one of the urns (which would hold about two 
quarts) amounted to about six pounds in weight ; that there were 
about three thousand silver coins in the other urn, which would 
contain about a gallon ; that the goat's head was found four or 
five yards from the urns, about four feet deep, in a cavity made 
in the quarry, which cavity was of the shape of a basin at the 
bottom ; that he was offered seven hundred pounds for the coins, 
which he refused ; that he considered they were altogether worth 
about one thousand pounds, but could not tell the total amount 
received for them, they having been sold in parcels at various 
times. 

I also examined the spot where the coins were found near the 
village, and where the bones and skeletons were discovered on 
Cleeve Terrace, arid saw an iron arrow-head in Mr. Stillingfleet 's 
possession, which was found with the skeletons. A large hewn 
stone called by the inhabitants Batowen, stands at the place and 



94 

it is most probably the base of an ancient cross. The Avon flows 
at the foot of the Terrace, and there is a ford and Cleeve Mill at 
the spot. Perhaps the skeletons may be those of some of the 
soldiers who fell in this part of the line between Kenilworth 
and Evesham, in the battles between the barons and Henry III. 
In conclusion it is as well to remark, that the late Kev. Mr. 
Digby, Canon of Worcester Cathedral, informed me that one of 
the urns also contained gold coins of Valens, Magnus, Maximus, 
and Arcadius, and he gave me an account of 255 of the gold 
coins, and of 832 of the silver coins. 

CROWLE. 

Dr. Thomas* says, that Beortulf, King of the Mercians, gave 
Eadberht, Bishop of Worcester, five manses at Crohlea; and 
that, in the time of Canute, and of Leofsius, Bishop of Worcester, 
" one Simund, a Dane, a soldier of Earl Leofrick's, endeavoured 
to dispossess the church of what they had at Crowle, for he so 
plagued it with suits and trespasses, that he drove away the 
farmers, and they were forced to grant it to him for his life, on 
condition that he should serve for them in the wars by sea and 
land, and should acknowledge the prior as his lord, by paying 
yearly a horse or money in lieu thereof f." 

Dr. Nash, in the first volume of his " History," p. 281, says : 
"In a field in this parish, adjoining to Hodington, was dis- 
covered, nearly two centuries ago, a stone coffin lined with lead J, 
and containing the bones of a man, almost mouldered away, with 
an earthen pitcher or urn at the head of it. These were supposed 
to have been the remains of some Danish warrior who had fallen 
in battle : an opinion which seems to be confirmed by the quan- 
tities of human bones frequently ploughed up around the place, 

* Page A, 27 and 61 of his Survey, &c, of Worcester Cathedral. Also see 
Nash, Vol. i., p. 279 ; and, Heming's " Cartulary," pp. 345, 572. 

+ Heming's " Cartulary," p. 265. 

| It will he ohserved in the account of Hadley Heath camp, in Omhersley, 
that a leaden chest was found there. 



95 

and the traces of fortifications till of late distinguishable, though 
now overgrown with woods. Dr. Thomas imagines this person 
was Simund the Dane. The stone of which the coffin was made 
so nearly resembled what is produced out of Burford quarry, in 
Oxfordshire, that a friend of Mr. Habingdon, a great naturalist, 
did not hesitate to affirm it was hewn from thence*." 



BREDICOT. 

As some workmen, in the summer of 1839, were excavating in 
the line of the Birmingham and Gloucester railroad in this 
parish, they found, at the depth of about two feet in the earth, 
under the spreading boughs of a very large and ancient pollard 
elm, just by Bredicot Court, a small Roman urn of red clay, four 
inches and one-eighth high, eleven inches and a half round the 
middle, six inches round the neck, and 
four inches round the foot. (See woodcut 
thereof here represented.) In shape it 
resembles a skittle, and I am informed 
there were about 140 small copper coins 
in it, which w T ere distributed amongst the 
workmen ; but the urn and sixty-two of 
the coins having been procured for my 
inspection, by Henry Chamberlain, Esq., of the above court, I 
found, after clearing them of much oxidation, that they were all 
Roman, and that the heads upon fifty seven of them had the iron 
crown. Those of the emperors I made out are as follow : — Seven 
of Gallienus ; eleven of Claudius Gothicus ; and one of Probus ; 
also one of Salonina, wife of Gallienus ; and the following of the 
usurpers in Gaul and Britain : — one of Posthumus ; nine of 
Victorinus ; twenty-four of Tetricus ; and four of Carausius. 

In the " Universal Historyf," the revolt of the Britons in the 
reign of Gallienus, and the names of the usurpers acknowledged 
in Britain, are stated; and it is worthy of remark that the 
Bredicot urn contained coins of all of them except Lollianus and 

* Habingdon MSS. t Vol. xix., pp. 161, 162. 




90 

Allectus. It is doubted whether a genuine coin of Lollianus has 
ever been found*. 

The urn in question, which is quite a little history of those 
times, was probably deposited at Bredicot (which lies between two 
and three miles from the site of the ancient camp at Elbury 
Hill) in the civil wars between Carausius and Allectus, for I do 
not find that it contained any coins of the Constantine family, 
who succeeded them ; however, as I have only seen part of the 
coins (the others having been carried away by the workmen), the 
evidence is not absolutely conclusive upon the subject. I pro- 
cured the urn and about forty of the coins for the Worcestershire 
Museum. Bredicot is situated about four miles north-east of 
Worcester. 

In 1846, a ring was found near Bredicot churchyard, and 
presented to me by the rector, the Rev. Wm. Godfery, which I 
sent for the inspection of the Archaeological Institute, and which 



*«THB nm(7J ffHGTfTHKKfY 




is figured and thus noticed in their Journalf. " The ring of 
base metal, plated with gold, and inscribed with a cabalistic or 

* Since the above was written, I find in the " Illustrations of the Remains 
of Roman Art in Cirencester," p. 142, the following, in the list of Roman coins 
discovered there : — 

" Laelianus. — An usurper in the reign of Gallienus. 

Base Silver. Obv.— IMP . C . LAELIANVS . P . F. AVG. 

Rev. — PAX . AVG. A female holding an olive branch." 

Lollianus and Laelianus are supposed to mean the same person. There is 
still, however, a question whether this coin of Laelianus is really genuine. 

+ Vol. iii., pp. 267, 268. Also see p. 357 of that Vol. ; and p. 78. of Vol. v. 






97 



talismanic legend, was recently dug up, near to the churchyard 
at Bredicot. It appears to be of the fourteenth century." — (See 
the woodcut of it.) 

Since writing the above, I am told, the inscription, subdivided 
as. follows, THE BAIGVTH GVTHANI, is in a dialect of the 
Saxon, and means, " the ring of Guthanus ;" most of the letters 
are English, and may have been made in imitation of an earlier 
model. 



98 



m in- 



DROITWICH. 

At this place was discovered an urn, supposed to be of the 
Koman, or Romano-British period, formed of coarse gritty clay, 
and of a dark colour ; it is scored with lines arranged lozenge- 
wise, and measures about six inches in height, by fourteen in 
circumference, at the widest part. (See an engraving of it, 
Plate 4, No. 1.) It was found at a depth of three or four feet, at 
Mr. Ellins's salt works, in St. Peter's Parish, and is in the pos- 
session of the Rev. W. Lea. In the adjacent soil were found 
remains of a human skeleton. The urn resembles in form one 
found with Roman remains near Bagshot*. 

Shortly afterwards further discoveries were made, the follow- 
ing particulars of which I communicated to the Archaeological 
Institute f : — 

" In pursuing my further researches relative to the Roman 
occupation of various parts of Worcestershire, I was anxious to 
discover evidences of such occupation at Droitwich, the Salinae, 
or supposed Salinas {, of the ancients. In addition to the Roman 
urn found there during the excavations for the foundations of 
Mr. Ellins's salt-works, the particulars of which I communicated 
on a former occasion §, a fine Roman tesselated pavement has 
since been discovered, about eight inches beneath the surface, in 
Bay's Meadow, on the northern bank of the river Salwarp, close 

* See " Archaeologia," Vol. vii., PI. xvi. And " Archaeological Journal," 
Vol. iv., pp. 73, 74. 

+ Vide " Archselogical Journal," Vol. iv., pp. 146 to 149. 

| In the country of the Dobuni. 

§ See " Archaeological Journal," Vol. iv., p. 73. 



"**~'^§8£ * 




Cinberslex 



FiateA.-p.Se. 



'" ■■■'■¥' 


1 % 


Droitwich, . 


J)roitwz^h, 



X 



As 



Jtibt esforcL 



A 



3 




SoVb. 




JToW 




GrunLey. 



$P':' 



Gi^imley. 




J? ever e, Isle. 



Jjiojirt li&v. 



to the town of Droitwich, and on the northern limb of the Stoke 
Prior branch of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton rail- 
way, being near the spot where that branch joins the main line. 

" This branch, on entering Droitwich from Stoke Prior, passes 
at the back of Mr. Ellins's salt-works, and, crossing the Wor- 
cester and Birmingham turnpike road by means of a viaduct, 
runs along the ridge called ' The Vines,' which lies below 
Doderhill Church, and proceeds to a point a little beyond 
Wood's salt-works, where it is divided into two parts ; a little 
further on, upon the northern limb of it, is the spot where the 
tesselated pavement was found. 

" A large portion of the pavement has been presented to the 
Museum of the Worcestershire Natural History Society, by the 
gentlemen acting officially upon the line. The Rev. William 
Lea, of Droitwich, invited me to the spot on the 3rd of April 
instant (1849), where I had the satisfaction of examining the 
pavement, and of witnessing its removal. It measured about 
three yards long, and two yards and a half broad, (but there 
may have been more of it on each side of the cutting), and it 
was curiously ornamented, in compartments, with various inter- 
laced figures, formed of white, red, and blue-coloured stones or 
tesserae, a little larger than dice. The meadow was formerly a 
ploughed field, and the pavement lay at the bottom, between two 
plough lands ; and the plough must, for centuries, have passed 
over the pavement, within a few inches of it. The cement in 
which the pavement was set is extremely fragile ; and probably 
the constant action of moisture and drought which continued for 
so long a period in the hollow between the two lands, materially 
tended to render it so. .At a few yards distance, towards the 
east, fragments of a similar pavement were dug up, of which I 
have sent specimens for inspection. These were found much 
better cemented together than the former, owing, perhaps, to 
their having been in a drier situation, under one of the lands. 
The tesserae of one specimen are much smaller than any of the 
rest. Whether the white and blue tesserae are composed of 
natural stone or artificial, I cannot pretend to determine; the 
red ones, evidently, are bits of brick. If they are natural, 



100 

the white may be oolite, and the blue, probably, are lias. If 
artificial, the white may have been made of either macerated 
oolite, or of a species of fuller's earth called ' walkers clay*,' 
which is found in some places in this county ; but I am at a loss 
to guess of what material the blue may have been made, unless it 
were macerated lias. 

" There were red sandstone foundations of a building at the 
spot, which appeared to have been of considerable extent, but we 
did not discover any Roman bricks. A small piece of the trans- 
parent talc (said to be the lapis specularis of the Romans) was 
found amongst these remains ; but whether, as it has been con- 
jectured, it was used in the windows of the building in question, 
in the same manner as we now use glass, I cannot pretend to 
decide. I am informed that, at a short distance from these foun- 
dations, a layer of human bones, in a state of crumbling decay, 
was discovered. Various relics, such as iron spear-heads, a fibula, 
key, bronze pins, fragments of tile scored with lines, and of 
pottery of various kinds, usually found near sites of Roman occu- 
pation, including a portion of ' Saurian' ware, ornamented in 
relief, were found near these remains f. Amongst the earthen- 
ware may be noticed a fragment of one of those singular flat 
vessels, formed of whitish clay, with a broad recurved margin, 
and a spout, frequently discovered with Roman remains J; also 
red pottery, ornamented with chevrons, circles, and dots of white 
clay, in relief. A portion of a small vessel of red ware was found, 
resembling one preserved in the Museum at Worcester, which 
was found in one of the cists in the Roman burial-ground 
at Kempsey (see the woodcut, p. 56, No. 6). Another speci- 

* " A walker, (Watcher, Dutch,) a fuller." — Bailey's Diet. 

f A considerable number of these remains, with specimens of the tesselated 
pavement, were sent by the Eev. William Lea, of Droitwich, and myself, for 
the inspection of the Archaeological Institute ; and those that belonged to me I 
presented to their museum. 

J These vessels are usually marked with a stamp near the spout. Repre- 
sentations of some, found in London, may be seen in the " Archaeologia," 
Vol. viii, pi. x.; vol. xii., pi. li. ; and of one found in Eckington in p. 74 of 
this work. 









101 

men, in my possession, was found with Koman remains, during 
the formation of the Severn navigation lock, at Diglis, near Wor- 
cester. An ornamental bronze pin, double-pointed, like the nock 
of an arrow, and perforated at the other extremity, was found in 
the earth where the pavement lay*. A bronze pin was found 
amongst Koman relics, during the demolition of the Castle Hill 
at Worcester, resembling this in its bifid point ; but the head, 
which is not perforated, is formed of stone, or vitrified paste f . 

" A large number of Eoman brass coins have been found 
all along the line at Droitwich, some previously to, and others 
during the cuttings, particularly in ' Bay's Meadow,' and in that 
part called ' The Vines,' which is a high ridge on the northern 
side of the river Salwarp, well exposed to the sun, and very 
suitable for a vineyard J ; possibly it may have been so used even 
by the Romans, or in later times by the brethren of the Friary of 
St. Augustine, in Wich, or Doderhill, or by the prior and convent 
of Worcester, who possessed considerable property there §. 

" The Roman coins which have been found at Droitwich 
amount to a considerable number. I have seen about fifty in the 
hands of different persons ; and among them were brass coins of 
Hadrian, Gallienus, Claudius II., several of Carausius and Con- 
stantius. I have also examined a collection belonging to a gen- 
tleman, late of Droitwich, now resident at Worcester, which 
includes coins of Maximian, Carausius, Constantius, Licinius, 

* This may possibly have been the acus of some kind of fibula; but see 
below, note +. 

+ See woodcut of the Castle Hill relic, p. 18, and an account of its proba- 
ble use, pp. 21, 22. 

I It is stated that formerly it had several terraces running along it, one 
above another. 

§ There are a great many fields, and other places in "Worcestershire, called by 
the name of " Vineyard ; " and it has been supposed by some writers that 
the Romans planted vineyards in Britain. See the general account of 
the Vineyards. Also Dr. Nash's notice of the above-mentioned place, 
called " The Vines," in his " History of Worcestershire," Vol. i., p. 307. 
The subject of the culture of the vine in Britain is discussed at length in the 
papers by Pegge and Daines Barrington, " Archaeologia," Vol. L, p. 321; 
Vol. hi., p. 67. 



102 

Constantine, Crispus, Magnentius, Valens, and Gratian, and 
about sixteen others, which I cannot decipher. He states that 
most of them were from time to time found at * The Vines,' 
when that part was used as gardens. And it may be remarked, 
that on the side of an elevation, called ' Pigeon-house Hill,' by 
Longbridge, at the north end of Bromsgrove Lickey, which is 
on or near the supposed line of the Upper Saltway from Droitwich 
to Birmingham, seventeen Roman coins were found, now in the 
possession of the same gentleman ; and I have identified the 
following : — Claudius II., Dioclesian, Maximian, Constantius, 
Constantine, and one on which may be read ' Constantinopolis.' 

" From all these facts, we now have abundant evidence of 
Roman occupation at Droitwich, which heretofore had been 
only matter of conjecture. Dr. Nash remarks, in his account of 
Droitwich, ■ This town was probably known to the Romans. In 
the map published by Mr. Bertram of Copenhagen, and prefixed 
to the " Britannicarum Gentium Historian Antiquae Scriptores," 
it is noticed by the name of " Salinse," though some imagine 
the " Salinas " of the ancients means Sandy, or Salndy, in 
Bedfordshire, or perhaps some of the Lancashire or Cheshire 
wiches*.' 

" The question remains for investigation, whether the salt- 
springs at Droitwich were known to and worked by the ancient 
Britons. Although we have not as yet found any relics in proof 
that they were, yet it may be safely concluded in the affirmative, 
as the Upper and Lower Salt-way ran from Droitwich towards the 
extremities of the kingdom ; and they are generally admitted to 
have been British f." 

With respect to the substances of which tesserae were made, see 
" Illustrations of the Remains of Roman Art in Cirencester, the 
Site of ancient Corinium," p. 49, &c, from which it is pretty 
evident, that what we have before described as white, or rather 
cream-coloured, are oolite ; and that the blue, or slate-coloured, 

* " History of Worcestershire," Vol. i., p. 302. 

+ See Mr. Hatcher's observations on the Salt-ways, in his " Commentary 
on Richard of Cirencester," p. 116 ; and the " Introduction to the Beauties 
of England," p. 61 



103 

are lias. With respect to Sandy or Salndy above referred to, 
it is situated on the Roman or Ikenild Street, in Bedfordshire, 
and is supposed by some to be the XaXrjvai of Ptolemy, and the 
salinae of the geographer of Ravenna. See the " Proceedings of 
the Society of Antiquaries," Vol. ii., 1851, No. 24, p. 109, 
wherein Roman relics found at Salndy are described*. 

It must also be stated here, that iron nails, of somewhat 
peculiar form, occurred amongst the Droitwich relics; and I 
learned from the late Dean of Hereford (Dr. Merryweather) that 
nails, identical in form, had been noticed at Kentchester, sup- 
posed to have been used in Roman times, to fasten the tiles of 
roofing. The Dean had also found similar nails in the course of 
recent investigations of Roman remains in Wiltshire. They 
most nearly resemble what are termed " clout nails." The 
surface of the little chest found at Rainbow Hill f, near Wor- 
cester, in railway operations, was thickly set with nails of similar 
form, but mostly of greater length \. 

An ancient urn, apparently of Roman fabrication, was also 
discovered in excavations during the formation of the railway at 
Droitwich, in 1847. This vessel, as it was supposed, from the 
appearance of decomposition which it had suffered, had been used 
in early times in the manufacture of salt§. It is seven inches 
high and twenty- two inches round the broadest part||. — (See an 
engraving of it, pi. 4, No. 2, p. 98.) 

A curious discovery was also made near Droitwich, the par- 
ticulars of which I gave to the " Worcester Herald," and which 
appeared on the 27th January, 1838, as follows : — 

In the month of December, 1837, as the sexton was digging a 
grave in the recently consecrated ground of the parish of Saint 
Mary Witton, which lies upon a rising spot adjoining the Wor- 
cester road, near Droitwich, his spade suddenly penetrated into 

* Also see the " Archaeologia," Vol. xxxi., p. 254, relative to a fine Eoman 
urn found in that parish. 
+ See p. 32. 

J See " Archaeological Institute Journal," Vol. vi., p. 404. 
§ Ibid. 
|| I presented it to the Museum of the Archaeological Institute. 



104 

a hollow place ; and upon digging further, two parallel rows of 
circular arches were found, which appeared to be of great anti- 
quity, from the curious form of the bricks of which they were 
built, and the mouldering condition of them upon being exposed 
to the atmosphere. 

Hearing of this, I visited the place ; and finding that the exca- 
vation was filled up again to prevent depredation, by the direction 
of the Rev. John Topham, the rector of the parish, he, at my re- 
quest, kindly promised to have the same reopened for the inspec- 
tion of such archaeologists and others as might wish to attend ; and 
accordingly, on the 3rd January, 1838, several gentlemen attended 
the reopening at my request ; among whom were Matthew Hol- 
beche Bloxam, Esq., of Rugby, and Thomas Henry Spurrier, Esq., 
of Edgbaston, near Birmingham; and, upon inspecting the arches, 
we all agreed that they were built of the flooring of the ancient 
church, which formerly stood within thirty yards of the spot, and 
that they were not Roman or Romanized British, or early Saxon, 
as had been supposed. 

The arches were rather flattened, and there were several of 
them in each row, and each of them was two feet two inches high, 
two feet four inches broad, and six and a half inches deep ; that is 
the depth of the length of the bricks of which they were built ; 
these bricks are five and a half inches broad, and one inch and 
three quarters thick, and are squared at the corners on the 
one side. The intervening space between each arch was five 
inches ; that is the diameter of the encaustic tiles which filled 
up the sides between the arches to the bend of them, and 
which tiles were cemented horizontally upon one another with 
red cement. The whole resembled the skeleton of the back of 
a horse or an ox. 

The bricks in the arches were strongly cemented together, and 
the edges of them and of the tiles, which were inwards, were 
highly vitrified, proving that strong fires had been used within 
the arches. The crowns of the arches were several feet deep 
beneath the level of the ground. 

At the bottom of the archways there was a quantity of black 
ashes of burnt wood, and a few fragments of a burnt bone, thought 






105 

to be that of the stag kind ; and the archways were nearly filled 
up with apparently nitrated earth. 

Now the question is, what were these archways built for ? The 
only guess we could give upon the inspection was, that they were 
ancient stoves upon which salt-pans or furnaces were placed for 
the converting of brine into salt. But then why should stoves 
have been erected upon this elevation so far out of Droitwich, 
unless salt-springs existed, and were worked at the time in 
question. 

The Kev. Mr. Topham and Mr. Frances, of Droitwich, kindly 
presented me with several of the encaustic tiles for the Wor- 
cestershire Museum. These are said to have been made in the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. One of them contains the 
representation of an archer with a long bow, dog, trees, and 
something like an owl ; another has two birds with their backs 
towards, but looking at each other ; another has a lion ; another 
has the first half of the alphabet in Longobardic characters ; 
another has fleur-de-lis ; and another has the ancient symbol of 
the Christian faith, viz., a fish enveloped in its own bladder, like 
an oval ring, styled by antiquarians " Vesica piscis." This sym- 
bol is often mentioned in works on antiquarian remains, but is 
said to be very rarely found either in museums or in the cabinets 
of the curious. The Greek word 'I^Ovs, a fish, being the anagram 
signifying " Jesus Christ the Son of God the Saviour," and by 
this secret sign were the early disciples of the faith known to 
each other. 

Dr. Nash, in his account of Droitwich, says, " the parish of 
St. Mary Witton was united with St. Andrews, 13th Charles II. 
No remains are discernible of the buildings of the church, nor is 
any account preserved of its arms, monuments, or paintings. It 
stood on a rising ground to the south-west of the town, near the 
turnpike road leading from Droitwich to Worcester. Many 
human bones are seen here, part of the churchyard having been 
cut away to widen the road." 

Some time after the above-mentioned investigations were made, 
I communicated the particulars to Albert Way, Esq., late Director 
of the Society of Antiquaries, who gave it as his opinion that it 



106 

was the site of encaustic tile works, as stated in the " Gentleman's 
Magazine," 1844*, as follows : — 

" With regard to the tiles with impressed designs in red and 
white, it may be affirmed that they were manufactured in this 
country, from the fact that kilns for burning them have been dis- 
covered, and especially one, which was brought to light in 1833, 
in the immediate vicinity of the Priory of Great Malvern. This 
kiln supplied, there can be little doubt, the rich variety of tiles 
which, as it appears either by the dates imprinted on them, or 
the distinctive character of ornament, were fabricated at the 
period when the Priory Church was rebuilt, about the middle of 
the fourteenth century. 

" A representation of this kiln, with a description by Harvey 
Eginton, Esq., F.S.A., may be seen in Dr. Card's account of the 
Priory Church. In December, 1837, a second kiln, of similar 
construction, was discovered near Droitwich, in a recently con- 
secrated cemetery in the parish of St. Mary Witton. A number 
of tiles, identical with those still existing in Worcester Cathe- 
dral and the Priory Church of Malvern, were found piled up 
therein ; but, from an erroneous idea, as I believe, that this kiln 
was an ancient salt-work, no sufficient notice was taken of the 
discovery. The tiles found at this place appear to be of the 
fourteenth century." 

I have only to add, that the piles of encaustic tiles which were 
found within the arches at Droitwich, and which were built up 
in columns with cement, probably were wastrel tiles, which were 
so used, between which to burn or bake those which were being 
manufactured. 

OMBERSLEYf. 

A mass of fragments of Eoman red earth pottery, and a few 
pieces of Samian ware, were discovered by Mr. John Amphlett, 
of Tapenhall, in two mounds, on Hadley Heath Common, in 



* New Series, pp. 492, 493. 

+ Otherwise, Ambresley, Ambreslege, Ambresloy, Ombresley, and Ambersley. 
It is called Ambreslege in " Domesday Book." 



107 

this parish ; which mounds, upon the enclosure of the common, 
about the year 1815, were levelled. These mounds appear to 
have been the relics of Koman pottery works. One of them 
stood within, and the other just without the site of a Koman camp 
at that place. Mr. Amphlett presented some of the specimens of 
the pottery to the Worcester Museum, and they exactly correspond 
in character with those which I obtained from Kempsey and 
Ripple. 

Dr. Nash, in the second volume of his " History," page 216, 
says that " Bishop Kennett, in his ' Parochial Antiquities,' 
pages 23 and 24, derives the name Ambresloy* from Aurelius 
Ambrosius, whom Gildas makes of Roman extraction, and who 
survived the murder of his royal parents. Other historians 
report him to be the son of Constantine, King of Britain, by a 
Roman lady, born about the year 435. The Bishop supposes 
Ambresloy, like Ambrosden, to have alluded to some camp or 
scene of action of this victorious prince, who defeated the Saxons 
under Hengist, at Wippednit, in Kent ; then marched to York ; 
in his return from which place to Winchester and Salisbury he 
would naturally pass through Worcestershire." But Ambresley 
more probably was derived from the word " ambre," as we 
shall state in the section entitled " Ambrosiae Petrge." 

A few years back, upon visiting Hadley Heath, in company 
with H. B. Peake, Esq., and Mr. Amphlett, the latter gentleman 
pointed out to us where the intrenchments lay, relics of which 
still remain in places, though much effaced by the plough and 
spade : there are, however, several sections of them in that part 
of the common which has not been enclosed. Mr Amphlett 
thought that the lines of.intrenchment extended round an oblong 
square of between two and three miles in circumference, and 
informed us that the workmen, who were employed at the enclosure, 
dug up, at the south-east side of the camp, a leaden chest, upon 
which was an inscription ; that the finders broke it to pieces, and 

* The learned Bishop thus describes the place in question : — " A parish in 
Worcestershire ; though corruptly called Ombresly, is truly Ambresley or 
Ambresloy, as in a donation of lands by Egwyn, Bishop of Worcester, to the 
monastery of Evesham, in that county." — (Spelman, " Concil.," Tom. I, p. 209.) 



108 

sold it as old materials ; and that a tumulus close by, which con- 
tained burnt bones, was levelled. He likewise pointed out to us 
that part which is considered to have been the praetorium. It 
lies in a ploughed field, now called Castle Hill, and abuts against 
a copse called Knights Grove. This praetorium was about eighty 
yards long and seventy broad, and the trench all round it is still 
visible, particularly so on the wood side. In the same field as the 
praetorium, one of the mounds, which contained the fragments of 
pottery, stood ; and we found several specimens at the spot. Mr. 
Amphlett also said, that near this mound the upper or concave 
stone of one of the ancient hand-mills was discovered, named by 
the inhabitants, " querns*." We also examined the spot called 
" Priest Stile," where the other mound stood, which contained 
the fragments of pottery, and of which pottery we found several 
specimens. This place lies near the north-west corner of the 
camp. 

The same observations which I made relative to the situation 
of Oldbury, near Worcester, apply with equal force to this locality, 
as it is a fine upland situation, and would communicate with 
nearly all the principal hills in the county, particularly with the 
northern ones. 

There is a trench, which runs through the site of this camp, 
and thence in a southern direction to Salwarp Brook, to a point 
called Harford ; and Mr. Amphlett considered that it was a Eoman 
road, which went from thence to Newland Common, in Salwarp 
parish, and joined the Trench Lane. 

An ancient British celt, in bronze, and of an early form, was, 
a few years back, dug up about nine inches below the surface, in 
a field which was formerly part of Lynal (Linnal or Lineholt) 
Common, by Borley, in Ombersley. It was, in the year 1844, 
presented to the Worcestershire Natural History Society by the 
Hon. and Kev. W. Talbot, the vicar of that parish. 

* There is a nether, or convex stone, of one of these mills in the Worcester- 
shire Museum, which was found in a bog at Pool, near Stourport ; it measures 
thirty-nine inches in circumference. It is said that the more modern querns 
are not concave and convex, but flat, and approximate to those of the modern 
corn mills. There are flat querns in the Scarborough Museum. 



109 



This celt, which was cast in a mould, is six inches and a quarter 
long, weighs seventeen ounces and a half, and has a fine and 
highly-polished patina incrusted upon it. — (See the engraving, 
Plate 4, No. 3, p. 98.) 



SALWAEP. 

We also examined this district, and considered that the Trench 
Road, referred to in the account of Ombersley, lay in or near the 
line of the present lane, which runs eastward from near Salwarp 
Brook, at Harford, to the Birmingham and Worcester turnpike- 
road at Oopcott Elm, near Droitwich, where it crosses and con- 
tinues round the north end of Newland Common to the Trench 
Lane, which runs south-eastward through Oddingley, and along 
the east side of the Trench Woods*, through Hodington to the 
turnpike-road. It most probably, however, crossed there, and 
continued southward along or near the present by-roads to Per- 
shore, or it may have gone more to the south-east to Evesham, 
and there joined the Rycknield Street. Mr. Amphlett was of 
opinion that it continued from Hadley Heath northward to 
Wassal Hill Camp, near Bewdley ; but of this he said he had no 
certain information. He also supposed that another Roman 
trench road branched northward from the north end of the Trench 
Lane, at Newland Common, in or near the line of the present 
by-road, which runs from thence through Droitwich ; and he 
said that it could be distinctly traced in places through Chad- 
desley, Bluntington, Tan Wood Common, Hill Pool, and over 
Harborow Hill (wiiere there is an intrenchment,) towards Wich- 
bury Hill, &c, and that this road is called the King's Headland at 
the latter part ; that there was a viaduct at Hill Pool over Barnett 
Brook; and that traces of the road are very distinct in several 
parts from Bluntington, through Tan Woodf, to Hill Pool, for 

* The Trench Lane is crossed at the northern end of the Trench "Woods hy 
the Birmingham and Bristol railway. 

f As to the origin of this name see " Chaddesley Corbett." 



110 

more than a mile, and occasionally onwards to Harborow, and 
from the latter place almost continuously to Stourbridge Com- 
mon, where, by a place called Green's Forge, is a vast camp called 
the Churchyard. This no doubt is the road which Bishop Lyt- 
tleton spoke of, as passing in the line from Stourbridge Common 
to that of Hagley, and he suspected that it also proceeded through 
Clent and Chaddesley towards Worcester* ; if so, it probably either 
crossed at the north end of the Trench Lane, and proceeded through 
Oddingley by Cold Harborough, or Cold Harbour, and Smite 
Hill in Hindlip, and through Warndon and by Trotshill or Toots- 
hill and Elbury Hill, and along the Port-fields Road, by Harbour 
Hill, and through Lowesmoor to Worcester. Or it continued 
along the Trench Lane to the south-east end of the Trench 
Woods, and then branched off westward through Crowle, and by 
Ravenhill in Tibberton, and through Bredicot and the trench 
at Kings Hill, at the north end of Perry Woodf, to Worcester, 
and passed out of the city on the Sidbury side, and through 
Kempsey and Severn Stoke and joined the Rycknield Street near 
Tewkesbury. 

We also examined Newland Common, which is a fine upland 
situation like Oldbury, and found that there is a deep trench, 
which runs southward from near the road at the north end of the 
Common to the highest part, now called Bunker's Hill. A person 
of the name of Thomas Garfield, who was, as we passed, working 
in the Trench Lane, told us that the trench on the Common was 
much deeper before the enclosure than it now is, and that about 
the year 1822, six or seven years after the enclosure, whilst re- 
moving some tumps or mounds of earth, four or five in number, 
which lay about twenty yards apart from each other, upon the 
top of Bunker's Hill, he found that each mound contained a kind 
of iron hoop or ring, about five feet in diameter, four inches 
broad and two inches thick; that these rings, nearly decayed 
with age and rust, were situated in the centre and at the bottom 
of the mounds, which were composed of sifted earth, and were 



* Vide Nash, Vol. ii., Appendix, p. cvii., &c. 

+ See the remarks respecting this trench in the account of Perry Wood. 



Ill 

each about eight yards in diameter and five feet high ; no appear- 
ance of any bones or ashes being observable in them. I was not able 
to form an opinion as to what purpose these mounds and rings 
served, or to what people they are to be attributed ; but the late 
Sir S. K. Meyrick, in a letter to me, remarked " that the large 
iron rings, if tending towards a cone, like one side of a quoit, 
may have been the edge-guards of Anglo-Saxon convex shields, 
but then the iron bosses should have been found in the centre." 

STOKE PRIOR. 

Having heard that some antiquities were found in the line of 
the Birmingham and Gloucester railway, at Stoke Prior, west of 
the salt works, in a piece of land belonging to the vicarage, I 
went there in 1839, when the workmen exhibited to me two rude 
bracelets made of brass found near to each other about three or 
four feet deep in the marl, together with fragments of a human 
skeleton, portions of which I saw. Pieces of the bones were 
within the bracelets at the time they were dug up. 

Some hewn blocks of sandstone, perhaps part of the foundation 
of a building or tomb, had also been excavated within a few 
yards of the spot, and likewise fragments of the bones of some 
animal ; it appeared that in days of yore holes had been dug 
there three or four feet deep, and filled up again with large un- 
broken pebbles from a gravel bed. These holes evidently were 
not cists, as the pebbles were not broken, like those at t,he cists 
at Kempsey *, and I was at first very much puzzled to assign any 
use to them ; it may, however, be inferred that they were holes 
or ovens in which food was cooked, or cakes baked, and which the 
Welsh denominate Greidiols, and the English Gredles f. 

This custom seems to be alluded to in the epic of " Frugal" 
in Ossian's Poems, of which the following is an extract ; and also 
the note which Mr. Macpherson added to it \ :— 

* See p. 54. 

+ See Whitaker's " History of Manchester," Vol. ii., p. 54. 

I See Denham and Dick's edition, 1805, Vol. i. " Fingal," Book i., p. 159. 



112 

"It was on Cromla's shaggy side that Dorglas placed the deer* ; 
The early fortune of the chase, before the heroes left the hill. 
A hundred youths collect the heath ; ten heroes blow the fire ; 
Three hundred chuse the polished stones. The feast is smoking wide." 

The bracelets are not exactly of equal size ; the smallest, 
which is the thickest and broadest, being quite plain and edged 
at each end ; while the other is slightly ornamented with two or 
three indents at each endf, and quite blunt. I am informed 
that a brass gilt armilla or bracelet of the late British or early 
Saxon era, and like the two in question, was found in 1780, in a 
barrow on Chatham Downs ; and, since I was at Stoke Prior, I 
learned that the fragments of two tiles were discovered at the spot 
in question, one of them containing two or three circles upon it, 
within each other ; but I rather think they are encaustic, and of 
a later date. 

A bracelet very similar to the beaded one is given in Mont- 
faucon's work on " Grecian and Roman Antiquities J." 

LINCOMB IN ASTLEY. 

An ancient British celt, of the earliest form, cast in bronze, 
was, in the year 1843, found in the cleft of a rock, 21 feet 
6 inches below the alluvium, and about 45 yards from the bank 
of the river Severn at Lincomb in Astley§. This celt was found 
on making a cutting for the lock for the improvement of the 
Severn navigation. (See an engraving of it, Plate 4, No. 4, p. 98.) 
It weighs nearly one pound and a quarter, and is about six inches 

* " The ancient manner of preparing feasts after hunting is handed down 
by tradition. A pit lined with smooth stones was made ; and near it stood a 
heap of smooth flat stones of the flint kind. The stones, as well as the pit, 
were properly heated with heath. Then they laid some venison in the bottom, 
and a stratum of the stones above it ; and thus they did alternately till the pit 
was full. The whole was covered over with heath to confine the steam. 
Whether this is probable I cannot say ; but some pits are shown, which the 
vulgar say were used in that manner." 

+ This one is in the Museum of Practical Geology in London. 

| Vol. iii., Part i., p. 50, fig. 3. 

§ Lincomb is partly in Astley, and partly in Hartlebury. 



113 

and a quarter long, three inches broad at one end, and one inch 
at the other. Upon it is a highly polished patina. These par- 
ticulars were furnished me by Mr. Lutley, of Worcester, one of 
the contractors for the navigation works. 

A similar celt is depicted and described in the " Journal of 
the Archaeological Institute," Vol. ix., p. 8, and stated to be " of 
the form known to the antiquaries of the North as Palstaves." 

HARTLEBURY. 

It was remarked by the late Mr. Watson, in Fasciculus II., of 
the " Statistical and General History of Worcestershire-," that, 
" when standing upon Hartlebury Common, in such a situation 
as to exclude the view of the surrounding country, an individual 
might easily be carried in imagination to the plains of Wiltshire, 
with all their recollections and associations. Immediately be- 
neath the brow of the hill are a number of mounds, in appearance 
like tumuli f; behind is the village of Torton (Thorstown ?) ; a 
few miles to the right is Tan J Wood ; towards the south §, at the 
distance of five miles, is Woodberry|| (Woodesberry ?) with the 
surrounding district, Witle^, the Holy Place IT; while beneath 
his feet the lichens creep upon the arid soil, and here and there 
is seen a little yellow flower or harebell, sheltered by a patch of 
of furze or heath. Though there are no remains of Druidical 
structures in this neighbourhood, still the coincidence of names 
of places with those upon the Wiltshire Downs is remarkable." 

Dr. James Nash, of Worcester, has a copper coin of the Roman 
Emperor Alexander, found at Lincomb, in Hartlebury parish. 

* Published under the superintendence of the Statistical Committee of the 
Worcestershire Natural History Society, 1839, page 6 of " The History of the 
the Parish of Hartlebury," by Kenrick Watson, Esq., of Stourport. 
+ " Stone arrows have been found near to these mounds." 
J " Tan, pronounced Taan, is a Welsh word signifying fire." 
§ See the account of Tan Wood in the description of Chaddesley Corbett. 
|| Woodbury. 

% The parish of Great Witley has been described by the Bevs. Thomas and 
John Pearson, in Fasciculus I. of the above history ; and Areley Kings, and 
Shrawley, hi Fasciculus III., by Mr. Watson. 

I 



114 

BKOMSGEOVE. 

The following notice of " The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove" 
is mainly extracted from a pamphlet published by me in the year 
1845, under the title of " The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove, 
Home the Hunter, and Eobin Hood." 

In the introduction to " The First Sketch of Shakespeare's 
Merry Wives of Windsor," edited by J. 0. Halliwell, Esq., Mr. 
Halliwell remarks : — 

"It is a singular fact, that no allusion to the legend of 
Home the Hunter, as he is called in the following sketch, has 
ever been discovered in any other writer. We are entirely 
ignorant of the date of the legend. In a manuscript, however, 
of the time of Henry VIII. , in the British Museum, I find 
' Rycharde Home, yeoman,' among ' the names of the hunters 
whiche be examyned and have confessed' for hunting in his 
Majesty's forests. Is it improbable to suppose that this was the 
person to whom the tale related by Mistress Page alludes? 
She speaks of him as no very ancient personage : — ' Oft have 
you heard since Home the Hunter died.' Connected as the 
' Merry Wives of Windsor' certainly is with the historical plays, 
the manners and language throughout are those of the time of 
Queen Elizabeth ; and it is only convicting our great dramatist 
of an additional anachronism to those already well known of a 
similar character, in attributing to him the introduction of a tale 
of the time of Henry VIII. into a play supposed to belong to the 
commencement of the fifteenth century." 

Upon perusing the above-mentioned work, I wrote to Mr. 
Halliwell, stating that I recollected hearing a ballad in my 
juvenile days, which might possibly have reference to the legend 
of Home the Hunter, but that I could only remember the con- 
cluding verse of it, — 

" In Bromsgrove Church his corpse doth lie — 
Why winded his horn the hunter ? 
Because there was a wild boar nigh, 
And as he was a jovial hunter." 

This led me, at Mr. Halliwell's request, to make considerable 
search after the ballad ; and at length I ascertained, from a 






115 

carpenter, of the name of John Cole, that he used to hear an old 
man sing it about fifty years ago ; and that the burden of the 
song was, that the district about Bromsgrove, in the days of 
yore, was principally covered with wood, and much infested by a 
wild boar, who was the terror of the neighbourhood. That the 
Jovial Hunter, upon a wild lady, or witch, appearing to him, 
determined to destroy the boar. That he proceeded to the attack 
by first winding three blasts, east, west, north, and south, with 
his horn*, which, the boar hearing, prepared for the encounter 
by whetting his tusks between his fore feet. That after a long 
and desperate battle the boar fell dead, and thereupon the wild 
lady again appeared to the Jovial Hunter, in great anger, and 
charged him with having killed her pretty spotted pig. The only 
lines Cole could recollect are as follows : — 

" Oh ! lady, oh ! lady, what bring'st thou here — 
Wind went his horn, as a hunter; 
Thee blow another blast, and he'll soon come to thee, 
As thou art a jovial hunter. 

" He whetted his tusks as he came along — 
Wind went his horn, as a hunter;" 

And Cole concluded his narrative by saying that Bromsgrove 
was, from the above-mentioned circumstance, formerly called 
Boar's Grove. This name, however, appears to have been a 
fiction to suit the legend, as it is called Bremesgrefa and Bremes- 
grsefa in Anglo-Saxon Charters, and Bremesgrave in " Domesday 
Book." There is a place by Shepley Heath, near Bromsgrove 
town, called Burcotf, which is vulgarly supposed to be a corrup- 
tion of Boarcot J ; and an old story has been handed down in the 
district, that the devil kept a pack of hounds at Hales Owen, 

* This brought to my remembrance the two following lines of the ballad; — 
" He blew a blast, east, west, north, and south, 
For as he was a jovial hunter." 
+ The name of this place is speUed Bericote in " Domesday Book." There 
were, in Anglo-Saxon times, places called Burcot, in Hants and Somerset. 
(See " Codex Dip.," No. 336, 816.) " Bur" means a bower in Anglo-Saxon. 

I There is a place called Boreley, or Borley, in the neighbouring parish t)f 
Ombersley. 



116 

vulgo, Hell's Own,) and that he and his huntsman, " Harry-ca- 
nab *," used to ride on wild bulls, and hunt the wild boars on 
Bromsgrove Lickey. 

Shortly after obtaining the information from Cole, a gentle- 
man, whom I had requested to make some inquiries after the 
ballad, brought me the following lines, which he said he took 
down in writing from a man of the name of Benjamin Brown, of 

Upper Wick : — 

I. 

" Sir Robert Bolton had three sons — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
And one of them was called Sir Ryalas, 
For he was a jovial hunter. 

II. 

" He rang'd all round, down by the wood side — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
Till up in the top of a tree a gay lady he spy'd, 
For he was a jovial hunter. 

III. 

" Oh ! what dost thou mean, fair lady, said he — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter; 
Oh ! the wild boar has killed my Lord and his men thirty, 
As thou be'stt a jovial hunter. 

IV. 

" Oh ! what shall I do, this wild boar to see — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter; 
Oh ! thee blow a blast, and he'll come unto thee, 
As thou be'st a jovial hunter. 

v - 

" Then he blow'd a blast full north, east, west, and south, 
For he was a jovial hunter; 
And the wild boar heard him full into his den, 
As he was a jovial hunter. 



* This word " nab" may come from the Swedish word " nappa," which means 
to catch unexpectedly, to come upon unawares, to seize without warning ; but 
vide the sequel. 

f Or beest. 



117 

VI. 

" Then he made the best of his speed unto him, 
Wind went his horn, as a hunter ; 
And he whetted his tusks as he came along 
To Sir Ryalas, the jovial hunter*. 

VII. 

" Then the wild boar, being so stout and so strong — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter; 
He thrash'd down the trees as he came along, 
To Sir Ryalas, the jovial hunter. 

VIII. 

" Oh ! what dost thou want of me, the wild boar, said he — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
Oh ! I think in my heart I can do enough for thee, 
For I am a jovial hunter. 

IX. 

*' Then they fought four hours in a long summer's day — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
Till the wild boar fain would have gotten away 
From Sir Ryalas, the jovial hunter. 

X. 

*' Then Sir Ryalas draw'd his broad sword with might — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter; 
And he fairly cut his head off quite, 
For he was a jovial hunter. 

XI. 

w Then out of the wood the wild woman flew — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
Oh ! thou hast killed my pretty spotted pig, 
As thou be'st a jovial hunter. 

XII. 
" There are three things I do demand of thee — 
AVind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
It's thy horn, and thy hound, and thy gay lady, 
As thou be'st a jovial hunter. 

* Brown's ballad did not contain the second and third lines of this verse ; but 
they are supplied from the lines which Cole recollected, as stated in p. 115. 



118 



XIII. 

" If these three things thou dost demand of me — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
It's just as my sword and thy neck can agree, 
For I am a jovial hunter. 

XIV. 

" Then into his locks the wild woman flew — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
Till she thought in her heart she had torn him through, 
As he was a j ovial hunter. 

XV. 

" Then Sir Ryalas draw'd his hroad sword again — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
And he fairly split her head in twain, 
For he was a jovial hunter. 

XVI. 

" In Bromsgrove Church they hoth do lie — 
Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
There the wild boar's head is pictur'd by 
Sir Ryalas, the jovial hunter." 



Brown afterwards sang, and also repeated the ballad to me : 
and I found the copy to be quite correct. He said he could 
neither read nor write, and that he learned the ballad by 
frequently hearing a countryman sing it about thirty-five years 
ago. He also said that Bromsgrove was formerly called Boar's 
Grove. 

Some time after this, Cole brought me another version of the 
ballad, which he said he wrote down from the mouth of a person 
of the name of Oseman, of Hartlebury, as follows : — 



" As I went up one brook one brook — 
Well wind the horn, good hunter ; 
I saw a fair maiden sit on a tree top, 
As thou art the jovial hunter. 



119 

II. 

" I said, fair maiden, what brings you here ? — 
Well wind the horn, good hunter ; 
It is the wild boar that has drove me here, 
As thou art the jovial hunter. 

III. 

" I wish I could that wild boar see — 
Well wind the horn, good hunter, 
And the wild boar soon will come to thee, 
As thou art the jovial hunter. 

IV. 

" Then he put his horn unto his mouth — 
Well wind the horn, good hunter ; 
And he blow'd both east, west, north, and south, 
As he was a jovial hunter. 



V. 

" The wild boar hearing it into his den — 

Well wind the horn, good hunter ; 
He whetted his tusks, for to make them strong, 
And he cut down the oak and the ash as he came along 

For to meet with the jovial hunter. 



.) 



VI. 
" They fought five hours one long summer's day — 
Well wind the horn, good hunter ; 
Till the wild boar he yell'd, and he'd fain run away, 
And away from the jovial hunter. 



VII. 

" Oh ! then he cut his head clean off! — 
Well wind the horn, good hunter ; 
Then there came an old lady running out of the wood, 
Saying, you have killed my pretty, my pretty spotted 
As thou art the jovial hunter. 






VIII. 

" Then at him, this old lady, she did go — 
Well wind the horn, good hunter ; 
And he clove her from the top of her head to her toe, 
As he was the jovial hunter. 



120 



IX. 

" In Bromsgrove churchyard this old lady lies — 
Well wind the horn, good hunter ; 
And the face of the hoar's head there is drawn by, 
That was killed by the jovial hunter." 

The only further evidence I obtained relative to the ballad, 
was from Mr. Maund, of Bromsgrove, (the author of " The 
Botanic Garden,") who stated that he had met with a person 
who once knew the ballad, but could only recollect the following 
lines ; — 

" Sir Eackabello had three sons — 

Wind well your hom, brave hunter ; 
Sir Eyalash was one of these, 
And he was a jovial hunter." 

It appears pretty evident, from the variations in the different 
extracts and accounts I have given, that there must have been 
several versions of this legend*. 

Upon an examination of these ballads, a question was raised, 
whether the Windsor legend and the Bromsgrove legend at all 
referred to the same person, or at least to persons of the same 
family ; and what led me at first to suppose that they did, is the 
constant reiteration of the words Home and Hunter in the ballad ; 
but as the Bromsgrove legend makes no allusion to the story of 
the stag's horned ghost, the evidence is not sufficiently strong to 
found an argument upon. 

Brown, in his account of the ballad, says he understood that 
the picture of the boar's head was still to be seen in Bromsgrove 
Church. Now this, most probably, referred to the crest of the 
Stafford family in that church ; for Dr. Nash, in his account of 
Bromsgrove, vol. i., page 156, has given the pedigree of this 
family from the time of Edward I. to Henry VIII. , and also a 
quotation from Habingdon, relative to an alabaster monument 
then in the chancel, but now in the body of Bromsgrove Church, of 

* I have no means of knowing what the title to the Bromsgrove ballad was. 
Cole said he thought it was the " Jovial Hunter." and I have assumed it to 
be so. 



121 

Sir Humphrey Stafford, of Grafton, Knight, and Eleanor*, his wife, 
with the family arms, and a hoar's head for a crest, upon a helmet ; 
and states that he was slain by Jack Cade, 28 Henry VI., 145 Of, 
and that his son and heir, Sir Humphrey Stafford, of Grafton, 
Knight, was attainted and executed, 1 Henry VII., 1485, at Ty- 
burn, and adds, " a report prevailed that Humphrey Stafford was 
drawn upon a hurdle from the Forgate, or North Gate of Wor- 
cester, to the Cross, and there put to death ; but this was without 
foundation];." 

The Doctor mentions the coats of arms of several other families 
who were buried in Bromsgrove Church ; but the coat in 
question is the only one which contains either a boar's head or a 
boar. 

The Stafford monument, which I visited in August 1844, is in 
the north-east corner of the northern aisle of the church §, behind 
the tomb of Sir John Talbot, Knight ||, and his two wives. It is 
a fine piece of sculpture, remarkable for the net-work head-dress 
of Eleanor. Under the head of Sir Humphrey is the figure of a 
boar's head, and the sexton then assured me that there was no 
other representation of a boar's head or boar either in the church 
or churchyard. 

It becomes a question, therefore, whether the Jovial Hunter 
was one of the Stafford family. It seems possible that the family 
may have taken the boar's head as a crest from some great feat 
done by one of them in killing a wild boar ; or the legend about 
the boar may have been an old story engrafted upon the crest of 
that family. A circumstance of the latter kind did actually occur 
with respect to the tomb of Sir Ralph Wysham, in Woodmanton 
Chapel, in Clifton-upon-Teme ChurchH. 

* Tlie Doctor, in his narrative and pedigree, has described her as " Eleanor ;" 
but under his picture of the monument she is called Elizabeth. Now, this Sir 
Humphrey's mother was Elizabeth, and hence, perhaps, the mistake arose. 

f At Seven Oaks. 

I " Appendix to Hales." 

§ It was said at the time of my visit, that on account of some contem- 
plated alterations this tomb was to be removed to the tower of the church. 

|| He died 10th Sept., 1550. 

IT See Clifton. 



With respect to the point, whether the story was merely en- 
grafted upon the crest of the Stafford family, it will be observed 
that Oseman's ballad, which begins "As I went up one brook," 
says nothing about the Boltons ; and as that ballad is much more 
simple in its construction than the other, it is probably the most 
ancient ; and if so, the engrafting must have taken place, for 
both ballads are based upon the same adventure. 

In fact, it does not appear unlikely that Sir Humphrey Staf- 
ford (the 2nd), whose tomb is in Bromsgrove Church, as before 
stated, either was or was at least represented to have been the 
Jovial Hunter. Sir Ralph Stafford, of Grafton, Knight, had three 
sons by his wife Maud ; their eldest son Sir Humphrey (the 1st) 
had three sons by his wife Elizabeth ; and their son Sir Hum- 
phrey (the 2nd) had three sons by his wife Eleanor ; therefore, so 
far, either of them exactly agrees with the ballad ; Sir Ralph was 
married 49th Edward III., 1374, and Sir Humphrey (the 1st), 
who would answer to Sir Robert Bolton or Sir Raccabello, died 
7th Henry V., 1418 ; Sir Humphrey (the 2nd), who would 
answer to Sir Ryalas, Sir Ryalash, or the Jovial Hunter, was 
killed in 1450 ; and Sir Humphrey (the 3rd) was executed at 
Tyburn in 1485, as before stated. 

Notwithstanding all this, it is not impossible that the original 
or real Jovial Hunter was a person of the name of Breme 
(which, in Anglo-Saxon, means renowned or famous) and that he 
having been buried at the place in question, it was therefore 
called Bremesgrefa, Brernesgrsefa*, or Bremesgrave f. There 
was a person of the name of Breme, of Suffolk, killed at the 
battle of Hastings ; he is entered in " Domesday Book " as one 
of the persons holding lands in the time of Edward the Confessor ; 
and an ancestor of his, or some other Anglo-Saxon of the same 
name, may have been the Jovial Hunter. The above-mentioned 

* See these names in the Anglo-Saxon Charters, in the " Codex Dip.," 
Nos. 183 and 186, dated respectively 804 and 821—823. The word grefa, 
graefa, means a hole, trench, or vallum ; and graf means a grove. See " Codex 
Dip.," Vol. iii., Preface, pp. 26, 27. Also see hereafter, as to " Hoar 
Grave," &c, in the account of Hoar Stones. 

+ See " Domesday Book." 



123 

person is thus noticed in the Index to Sir Henry Ellis's 
" General Introduction to Domesday Book " : — " Breme liber 
liomo Regis E. qui fait occisus in bello Hastingensi Suff. 
409 b*." 

With respect to the name Harry-ca-nab f, it is stated in the 
"Athenaeum" for Saturday, October 10th, 1846 j, that it is 
another version of the wild huntsman, and that " the name 
Harry-ca-nab is an addition to the Satanic nomenclature. It is, 
perhaps, related to the epithet ' Old Harry,' alias ' Old Hairy ;' 
or possibly to the ' Domina Hera quae volat per aera,' mentioned 
by Grimm in his ' Mythologie.' " 

There also is an account of the Wish or Wished, or Spectre 
Hounds of Dartmoor, and of the famous spectre hunt of Odin, 
" the Wild Jager of the German Forests," in the " Athenaeum " 
for March 27, 1847, p. 334, No. 1013. Also see Kemble's 
" Saxons in England," Vol. i., pp. 346, 349 ; and the chapter in 
this work, on " Folk Lore." 

There was, according to tradition, another mighty hunter, of 
the name of Callow ; and we have Upper and Lower Callow's 
Field, in the parish of Bromsgrove ; Callow's Leap §, near the 
Bridge's Stone, in Alfrick ; Callow's Grave, near to Tenbury ; 
Callow-end, near the Old Hills, in Powick ; Hither and Further 
Callow Field, and Callow's Piece, in Martley ; Callow Lane, in 
Stoke Prior 1 1. And in the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Oddingley 
there was a place called Callow Hill ; and Callew Hill, or Callow 
Hill, on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of BredicotlL 

* There were, in Anglo-Saxon times, places called Bremela, and Bremelham ; 
also Bremerleah (Bremerley, Worcestershire). See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 817 
and 570. " Domesday Book" notices a place called Breme in Wilts. In 
Heming's " Cartulary," Bromsgrove is spelled Bremer-gref, Bremergraf, 
Bremesgraf, Bremesgrafe, Breniesgrfe, and Bremesgrsefan. 

+ Seep. 116. 

J Page 1043, No. 989. 

§ It is a very deep precipice, with a brook running at the bottom. See 
Alfiick and Folk Lore. 

|| There also is Callow-brain Orchard, in Upper Sapey, Herefordshire. 

^[ See Heming's " Cartulary," pp. 355, 357 ; and Nash's " History," VoL 
ii., Appendix, pp. 51, 53. 



124 



CHADDESLEY CORBETT. 

The name of Tan Wood, in this parish, appears to be of Celtic 
origin. The Rev. W. L. Bowles, in his " Hermes Britannicus," 
when describing Tan Hill, in Wiltshire, states that " The name 
of the Celtic God of Thunder, it is well known, is Taranis, or 
Tanarus. In Lucan, it is Taranis ; but an inscription, on an 
altar, found in Cheshire, has the remarkable words, ' D. 0. M. 
TANARO,'— ' To the great Jupiter Tanarus.' This stone 
remains a singular corroboration of the veracity of Lucan in his 
names of the Celtic Gods ; and of Caesar also, who enumerates 
Jupiter. 

" The name, either Taranis or Tanarus, signifies the same 
deity ; for Taran is Celtic for thunder, and Tan for fire* ; to 
which name, originally, the lightning might have given rise ; and 
from hence was derived the name of the sacred fire called the 
Bel-tan, or Baal-tine, flaming on such heights, and answering 
each other from hill to hill, through all the consecrated precincts 
of the Druids ; so that, if called Taranis, it is from thunder, as 
Tanarus is from lightning or fire." 

Besides Tan Wood, there are Tan Wood Meadow, Lower Tan 
Wood Meadow, and Tan Wood Field, in Chaddesley Corbettf." 

In August 1844, I visited part of Tan Wood, and found that 
the common had been enclosed about forty years previously. 
The scene, from the fine artificial tumulus called Barrow Hill, is 
very extensive and beautiful. On the east and south-east appears 
Bromsgrove Lickey. Further to the south, the Cotswolds and 
Bredon Hill. On the south-west, the Malverns, the Berrow, 
Woodbury, and Abberley Hills ; while, on the west, north-west, 
and north, are Stagbury, the Clee, Hagley, and Clent Hills. 

Barrow Hill appears to be about 115 yards long, and 90 yards 
wide at the broadest part. In shape it is something like a pear, 
with the narrow part towards the west. The top is bare, but its 
steep sides are covered with a plantation of oak, fir, and various 

* It is Tan in Welsh, and Teiniclli in Irish. 

+ It also contains places called Far Long Barrow Field, Long Barrow Field, 
Little Barrow Field, and Cross Barrow Field. 



125 

other trees, planted perhaps when Tan Wood House was built. 
There is a round tump at the east end of the summit of the 
tumulus, as represented in the woodcut ; and the whole hill is 




very perfect in its appearance, except at the northern side, which 
has undergone some excavation. I was informed by an old 
inhabitant, that about forty years ago a great number of fine oaks 
were cut down at Tan Wood, by order of the Lord of the Manor, 
which, I presume, was done preparatory to the enclosure of the 
common. 

Ran Dan Woods are partly in Chaddesley Corbett and partly 
in Belbroughton. Mr. Halliwell, in his " Glossary of Archaic 
Words," explains Randan as meaning, in Gloucestershire, " noise 
or uproar*. The Worcestershire words "tang rang," "rang tang," 
have the same meaning \. Supposing the name of Ran Dan Woods, 
in Chaddesley Corbett, means noise and uproar, it probably 
alludes to the noise and uproar attendant on the chase \ ; and the 

* In Thorpe's " Northern Mythology" (Vol. i., pp. 27, 199, 200, 288), it 
is stated that " Ran" is the wife of Oegir, the stormy ocean; and that 
her name signifies plunder and robhery ; and that " Dain " means a hart, and 
also a dwarf (ibid., pp. 13, 33, 151, 155). 

+ Mr. Halliwell gives Ran, rebellious ; and Tang, sound of a bell. 

I See p. 114 to 122 as to wild boar hunting in the neighbouring parish of 
Bromsgrove. There are fox covers in the Ran Dan Woods ; but fox-hunting in 
the West of England is doubtless too modern a sport from whence to derive the 
name in question. See Hone's " Every Day Book, and Table Book," Vol. hi., 
p. 35, where the commencement of anything like regular fox-hunting in the 
West is set down at about the year 1730. 



126 

following extract from Dr. Nash's " History," Vol. i., p. 184, 
appears in a measure to favour this opinion : — " 28 Edward I. — 
William Corbett was certified to be Lord of the Manor of Chad- 
desley Corbet, with its members and woods ;" and that " Edward 
I. issued out his mandate to Peter Corbet, w T ho probably was a 
keen sportsman, in these words: — ' Eex omnibus ballivis, &c. 
Sciatis quod injunximus dilecto & fideli nostro Petro Corbet 
quod in omnibus forestis, & parcis, & aliis locis infra comitatus 
nostros Gloucester. Wygorn. Hereford. Salop. & Stafford, in 
quibus lupi poterunt inveniri, lupos cum hominibus, canis, & 
ingeniis suis capiat et destruat modis omnibus quibus viderit 
expediri." See Pennant's " British Zoology," Vol. i., p. 62. 
The hunter of the wolves* was usually in the king's pay: 13 
Henry II. three shillings were ordered to the hunter in Wor- 
cestershire, who caught the wolves in the forest : 17 H. II., three 
shillings : 27 H. II., three shillings : 5 John, 3 shillings." 

There does not seem to be any mention made of this hunter 
upon the rolls of Henry III., and after his time f. 

Such remarkable names of places as Tan Wood, Astwood Hill, 
and Barrow Hill, being joined together, strongly prove the Celtic 
character of the place ; and in fact such names designate all that 
an ancient community required, namely, a sacred altar or place 
of worship of the Celtic god of thunder, a sacred hearth J, and 
a place of sepulture. It is also worthy of observation that three 
remarkable places, bearing names importing that they were simi- 
larly occupied, are found together in the parish of Claines, near 
Worcester, namely, Elbury Hill, Astwood, and Barrow Cop. 

There is a river called Tanaro, in the kingdom of Piedmont 
and Sardinia. Tanera, two isles, Scotland, par. Loch-broom, 
Sh. Cromarty. Tanfield, chap, in the parish of Chester-le-Street, 
middle div. Chester-ward, Co. Pal. Durham ; Tanfield in York- 

* The " Codex Dip.," No. 59, Vol. i., and 59 App., Vol. iii., mentions 
Wolfandun (Wolfdown), Co. Worcester. 

+ Vide the ancient " Dialogue concerning the Exchequer," published by 
Madox. 

I That is, if the name of Astwood Hill was derived from Asta, relative to 
which see Claines. 



127 

shire ; the like in Lincolnshire ; and there are departments and 
rivers in France called Tarn, and Tarn and Garonne. 

There are places called Hither, Further, and Upper Tin Mea- 
dows in Cakebold, in Chaddesley Corbett; Tin Hill in Church- 
hill ; Tyne Fields, or Tin Fields, and Near, Far, First, Second, 
and Third Tin Fields in Hartlebury ; Tin Meadow in Waresley, 
in Hartlebury ; Tin Meadow, Tin Meadow Hop-yard, and Tin 
Meadow Orchard, in Suckley ; Tin Meadow in Elmley Lovett ; 
Tin Meadow in Bromsgrove parish ; Tin Meadow in King's 
Norton ; Tin Meadow in Northfield ; Tin Close in Martley ; 
Tin Croft, in Lower Smite, in Warndon ; Upper, Middle, and 
Lower Tin Fields, in Clent. All the above-mentioned are in 
Worcestershire. There also is Tin Hill in Boraston and Wliat- 
more, Co. Salop*. 

Tin, or tind, is a provincial term meaning to " tin," " tind," 
or light the firef, and most probably is derived from Tan, the 
Celtic name for lightning, or fire. Tonih also means fire in 
North Africa ; Tein, fire in Gaelic ; and Teinde, fire in Algon- 
quin, North America. (See " Chambers' Edinburgh Journal" 
for February 1844, p. 69.) 

Tin, the Cornish metal which the Phoenicians traded in, may 
also have been so called from its whitish or shining appearance. 

* In the Anglo-Saxon times there were places called Tan, or Taan, (see 
" Codex Dip.," Nos. 1051, 1052, 1064, 1065) ; also, Tandun, 1083, (Tandon 
river) ; Tanhlaw, 590, (Tanlow), Hants ; Tamlea, 1155, (Tanley), Hants ; 
Tanmere, 1235, (Tanrnere), Hants; Tannera hole, 518, 518 App. Vol. hi., 700, 
700 App. Vol. vi. ; and Tantun Tantunes land, 374, 374 App. Vol. hi., &c, 
and Taunton, Somerset. 

+ Herrick, in his account of Candlemas eve, speaking of the Christmas 

brand, says, — 

" Part must be kept wherewith to teend 

The Christmas log next yeare." 

(See Hone's " Every Day Book," Vol. i., p. 204.) 



128 



SARN OR SERN HILLS, YARN HILLS, AND 
DARN HILLS. 

Within about a mile of the Mythe Tute, near Tewkesbury, there 
is a hill called Sarn Hill* in Bushley parish, Worcestershire |. 

In Gough's Camden (Vol i., p. 387), it is stated that the 
British word Sarn means a pavement ; and it seems, therefore, 
probable that a Druidical seat of judgment may have formerly 
stood at the hill in question, from the floor or pavement of 
which its name was derived. It is spelled Searn Hill in the 
Ordnance Map, Sern Hill in the Map of Isaac Taylor, and 
Gough's Camden, and Sarn Hill in the " Further Report of the 
Commissioners for Inquiring concerning Charities." 

There is a place called Starn Hill in the parish of Elmley 
Castle, Sarnsfield parish, in the hd. of Wolphy, Co. Hereford. 
A reef of rocks, called Sarn J Badrig, or Patrick's Causeway, 
extending out to sea about twenty-one miles from the coast of 
Merionethshire ; Sarn Helen, called the " Paved Way of the 
Legion," in the latter county, and Sarn Helen, called Helen's 
Road, in Caermarthenshire. 

Old Yarnhill§, and Old Yamhill Meadow, in Feckenham; a 
hill, formerly called Yarnborough||, but now Ambury, in Stour- 
bridge ; Yarnell Lane in Bromsgrove ; Sivy Yarn, in Upper 
Sapey, Co. Hereford ; Yarnsbury Camp, in Wiltshire ; and Yarn- 
ton, in Oxfordshire. 

DarnhillH Orchard and Darnhill Homestead, in Knighton-on- 

* A road, called Wood Street, runs by this hill. 

+ See Itinera xi. and xix. 

I The large stones at the Grey Weathers on Marlborough Downs, Wiltshire, 
of which Stonehenge is said to have been built, are called Sarsen or Sassen 
stones by the country people. Sarsen is a Phoenician word for a rock. (See 
Gough's " Camden," Vol. i., p. 161), and Scear signifies a rock in Saxon. 

§ The word Yarn, in Welsh, means a seat of judgment. (See further 
thereon under the head Malvern Hills, and Ambrosise Petrae.) 

|| So in old writings. 

H Query whether this name is a corruption of Yarn, or comes from the 
Saxon Deor (deer.) 






129 

Teme ; Darnhale, now Darnhill Grange, or Grane, in Cheshire * ; 
and " Domesday Book" mentions Darenden, in Kent; Darneford, 
in Wilts ; and Darninton, in Yorkshire. 

I must here notice some interesting corroborative evidence 
relative to ancient pavements as seats of judgment. In the 16th 
verse of the 24th chapter of Exodus, the subject is referred to as 
follows : — 

" And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his 
feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the 
body of the heaven in his clearness." 

And the following is Dr. Adam Clarke's commentary thereon : — 
" A paved work of sapphire stone] or sapphire brick-work. I 
suppose that something of the musive or mosaic pavement is here 
intended; floors most curiously inlaid with variously-coloured 
stones, or small square tiles, disposed in a great variety of orna- 
mental forms. Many of these remain in different countries to 
the present day. The Komans were particularly fond of them, 
and left monuments of their taste and ingenuity in pavements of 
this kind, in most countries where they established their domi- 
nion. Some very fine specimens are found in different parts of 
Britain." 

In the 13th verse of the 19th chapter of St. John, it is stated, — 
" When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus 
forth, and sat down in the judgment seat, in a place that is called 
the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha." 

The following is the learned Doctor's commentary thereon: — 
" The Pavement.] AiOoarpwrov, literally, a stone pavement; 
probably it was that place in the open court where the chair of 
justice was set, for the prefects of provinces always held their 
courts of justice in the open air, and which was paved with stones 
of various colours, like that of Ahasuerus, Esth., i. 6, of red, 
blue, white, and black marble ; what we still term mosaic work, 
or something in imitation of it ; such as the Roman pavements 
frequently dug up in this and other countries, where the Romans 
have had military stations." 

" Gabbatha.] That is, an elevated place ; from j-j^ Gabah, 
* See Gougb's " Camden." 
K 



130 



high, raised up ; and it is very likely that the judgment seat 
was considerably elevated in the court, and that the governor 
went up to it by steps ; and perhaps these very steps were what 
was called the Pavement. John does not say that Lithostroton, 
or the Pavement, is the meaning of the word Gabbatha ; but that 
the place was called so in the Hebrew. The place was probably 
called Lithostroton, or the Pavement: the seat of judgment, 
Gabbatha, the raised or elevated place. 

* * * " Lightfoot conjectures that the Pavement, here, 
means the room Gazith in the temple, in which the grand coun- 
cil, called the Sanhedrim, held their meetings." 

Under all circumstances there appears to be considerable pro- 
bability that the Sarn Hills contained ancient British seats of 
judgment ; and as the Druidical worship and ceremonies are com 
sidered to have come from the East*, it seems natural to suppose 
that the British Druidical seats of judgment should correspond 
with their Eastern antitypes. 

EOBIN HOOD. 



The memoiy of the famous Kobin Hood is preserved in the 
names of numerous places in and about Feckenham Forest : 
thus, in the parish of Chaddesley Corbett, there is a field called 
Robin Hood's Oak ; likewise, in Grimley, a field designated 
Robin's Acre ; fields named Robin's Piece, Big Robin's, and 
Little Robin's, in Tardebigg ; and pieces of land named Robin's 
Field, Big Robin's Field, and Robin's Hays, in Northfield ; 
Robin Hood Piece, in Doderhill, near Droitwich ; Robin's Hill, in 
Alvechurch ; Robin's Field, in Luttley, in Hales Owen ; and 
Robin's Meadow, in Stoke Prior. 

We propose now to offer some short account of Feckenham 
and various other forests in the north of Worcestershire. Dr. 
Nashf states :■ — " Among the forest-rolls remaining in the closet 
of the old Chapter House of Westminster Abbey (where the King's 
Bench and Common Pleas records are now kept, anno 1778), 
is one entitled on the back, ' Rot. de Foresta de Pyperode in 

* See hereafter, under the head Ambrosiae Petrae. 
+ " History," Vol. i., Introduction, p. C8. 






131 

com. Wigorn. temp. B. Johan.' Which forest seems to have con- 
tained within its bounds part of Chaddesley Corbett, Bel 
Broughton, Bromsgrove, Alvechurch, &c. Some woods in Chad- 
desley still retain the name of Peppy r Woods. In the " Inquisitio 
post mortem Eogeri Bishopsden," 18 E. II., he is said to have 
held at his death the office of bailiff of the forest of Feckeney, et 
Pyperode intra forestam de Feckenham. By this it should seem 
that Pyperode Forest was only a member of the large forest of 
Feckenham*." Other parts of the north of Worcestershire 
were included in Kynvare (Kinver) Forest; such as part of 
Pedmore, Hagley, Old Swinford, Chaddesley, Kidderminster, 
Wolverley, and Churchill. 

The boundaries of Feckenham Forest were much enlarged 
by Henry II., to the very great distress of the inhabitants ; in 
fact, the greatest portion of the north and north-east part of 
Worcestershire was included in it. The following, among many 
other places, were added to it by Henry, namely, part of Droit- 
wich, of Hanbury, of Eushock, of Hartlebury, of Chaddesley 
Corbett, of Forfield, of Coston, of Stoke, of Alvechurch, of 
Tardebigg (including the hamlet of Eedditch), of Harvington, of 
Evesham, of Fladbury, of Abberton, of Crowle, of Bredicot, and 
of Spetchley. 

Here, then, we have proof that the field called Eobin's Acre, 
in Grimley, and the pieces of land called Eobin's Field, Big 
Eobin's Field, and Eobin's Hays f , in Northfield ; and Eobin's 
Field, in Luttley, in Hales Owen, were situated near to the 
forests ; and that the place called Eobin Hood's Oak, in Chad- 
desley Corbett, Eobin's Piece, Big Eobin's, and Little Eobin's, 
in Tardebigg, Eobin Hood's Piece, in Doderhill, Eobin's Hill, in 
Alvechurch, and Eobin's Meadow, in Stoke Prior, lay in the 
midst of the forests ; consequently, it is probable that Eobin 
Hood sometimes ranged in those parts, either to chase the wild 
animals of the district, or to avenge the wrongs that his country- 
men were enduring under the odious forest laws. 

* See Nash, Vol. i., Introduction, pp. 65, 66, 08 ; and Vol. ii., Appendix, 
pp. 107, 108. 

+ As to this name, see " Folk Lore." 



132 

That he was at the battle of Evesham, which lay on the south- 
east side of Feckenham Forest, is strongly substantiated by the 
following extract from " Old England," Part iv., Book ii., 
page 11.8 : — 

" Fordun, the Scottish historian, who travelled in England in 
the 14th century, diligently collecting materials for his great 
work-''', which forms, to this day, our only authority for the facts 
of Scottish history through a considerable period, states, imme- 
diately after his notice of the battle of Evesham, and its con- 
sequences to all who had been connected, on the losing side, with 
the general stream of events to which that battle belongs, — ' Then 
from among the dispossessed and the banished arose that most 
famous cut-throat Robert Hood and Little John.' If any one 
rises from the perusal of the mighty events of the reign of Henry 
the III., with the conviction that Simon de Montfort, to whom, 
in all probability, England owes its borough representation, was 
a rebel instead of a martyr, as the people called him, and that 
the words so freely used by Dr. Lingard, of pirates, banditti, and 
rebels, were properly applied to Simon de Montfort's followers, 
then also they may accept Fordun 's opinion that Kobin Hood 
was a cut-throat, — but not else; they will otherwise, like ourselves, 
accept his fact only, which is one of the highest importance, and 
beyond dispute as to its correctness, however strangely neglected 
even by brother historians. Fordun 's work was continued and 
completed by his pupil, Bower, Abbot of St. Colomb, who, under 
the year 1266, noticing the further progress of the events that 
followed the battle of Evesham, says, — ' In this year were 
obstinate hostilities, carried on between the dispossessed barons 
of England and the Royalists, amongst whom Roger Mortimer 
occupied the Marches of Wales, and John Duguil the Isle of 
Ely. Robert Hood now lived an outlaw among the woodland 
copses and thickets.' " 

About fifty years ago there stood near the village of Chaddesley 
Corbett, a very large and ancient oak, called Robin Hood's Oak. 



* He wrote about 1340. See Smith's Standard Library, " Robin Hood," 
p. 21. 



13! 



It appears to have been cut down at the same time that the 
neighbouring fine oaks on Tan Wood Common were felled by 
order of the Lord of the Manor. It stood in the lane by a piece 
of ground which is still called Kobin Hood's Oak-. The lane is 
now a bye-way leading from Beauty Bank to Bluntington ; and 
in consequence of a new road having been cut across the angle 
from Chaddesley village towards Bluntington has become almost 
useless. The views from thence are extensive and fine. On the 
east, Bromsgrove Lickey and the Kan Dan ridge of woods appear ; 
further to the south, the Cotswolds and Bredon Hill ; on the 
south-west, the Malverns, the Berrow, Woodbury, and Abberley 
Hills ; and on the west, north-west, and north, Stagbury, Hagley, 
and the Clent Hills. 

It has been contended by some writers, that Kobin Hood was 
born at a place called Locksley, or Loxley, which is said to have 
been either in Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire ; but it is remarked 
in Smith's Standard Library, " Robin Hood," pp. 4, 5f, that 
we have no evidence of any such place in either of those counties ; 
but of this by and bye. 

There is a township called Loxley, in the parish of Uttoxeter, 
in Staffordshire, and a parish called Loxley, situated near to Strat- 
ford upon Avon, in Warwickshire ; and the question is, whether 
the latter place, which lay near to Feckenham Forest, was not 
the birth-place of our hero ; if so, it is probable that after the 
battle of Evesham he removed to Sherwood Forest, in Notting- 
hamshire, and to Barnsdale Forest, in Yorkshire. This appears, 
in some measure, to be corroborated by the following extract 
from the above-mentioned work : — " Dr. Fuller j is doubtful as to 
the place of his nativity. Speaking of the ' Memorable Persons ' 
of Nottinghamshire, ' Robert Hood,' says he (if not by birth), by 
his chief abode this countryman." 

Edward I., in or soon after the 28th year of his reign, 1299, 
disafforested all the lands which his great grandfather, Henry II., 
had tyranically wrested from the people, and added to Feckenham 

* The ground is numbered 590 in the Tithe Commutation Map. 
t Published in 1840, at 113, Fleet Street, London. 
+ " < Worthies of England/ 16G2, p. 320." 



134 

Forest* . As this took place only about thirty-five years after the battle 
of Evesham, it is not unlikely that Robin Hood was either then 
living or had not long been deadf; and, in fact, that very interest- 
ing legendary poem, entitled, " A Lyttell Geste of Robyn Hode," 
(which is probably the oldest and most authentic that we have 
upon the subject,) describes a great many of his exploits as having 
taken place during a long course of years in Edward's reign. 

Mr. Spencer Hall, in his "Forester's Offering J," quoted by 
J. M. Gutch, Esq., in his edition of " Robin Hood," Vol. i., p. 
75, says that " Robin Hood, or, as some authors have it, Robert 
o' th' Wood, was born at Loxley Chase, near Sheffield, in York- 
shire, where the romantic river Loxley descends from the hills to 
mingle its blue waters with the Rivilin, and the Don, a place well 
known to every grinder in Sheffield, and often alluded to in the 
poems of the people's laureate, Ebenezer Elliott, who is the 
owner of some land on the spot, but of which the last London editor 
of ' Ritson's Collection of Ballads,' could not tell the locality ; 
and so, after an elaborate research, concluded that no place in 
that, or the neighbouring county of Nottingham, now retained 
the name." 

There is a ballad relative to Robin Hood in Mr. Gutch's col- 
lection, Vol. ii., p. 255, in style rather like the ballad of the 
Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove §, and commencing as follows : — 

" Bold Kobin Hood ranging the forest all round, 
The forest all round ranged he ; 
there did he meet with a gay lady, 
She came weeping along the highway. 

" Why weep you, why weep you ? hold Kobin he said, 
What weep you for gold or fee ?" &c. &c. 

This ballad is printed in Smith's Standard Library, " Robin 
Hood," p. Ill, and is entitled " Robin Hood rescuing the three 
squires from Nottingham gallows." 

* See Nash, Vol. i., Introduction, pp. 65, 66. 

+ Some of the places mentioned in pp. 130, 131, may have been called after 
Eobin Hood's name upon disaifore sting of the lands. 
+ London, 1841. 
§ See pp. 116, 118. 



135 

Mr. Gutch observes that " this song, and its tune, as the editor 
is informed by his ingenious friend Edward Williams, the Welsh 
bard, are well known in South Wales by the name of Marckog 
glas, i.e., Green knight. Though apparently ancient, it is not 
known to exist in black letter, nor has any better authority been 
met with than the common collection of Aldermary churchyard. 
— Ritson." 

BELBROUGHTON. 

In the year 1833, a Roman jar, containing more than one 
hundred coins of the early emperors, was found upon the Fern 
estate, near Farfield or Forfield in this parish. Mr. John Amphlett 
has in his possession several of the coins of Adrian and Anto- 
ninus Pius, one of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and several of the 
Gordians and Philip, all which I have seen. Dr. Nash, in Vol. i., 
p. 56, of his " History," says Belbroughton was anciently called 
Belm, Belne, Beolne, and Balne Bereton. It is spelled Beolne 
in Heming's " Cartulary," p. 261, and Bellem in Domesday 
Book. 

" Here was formerly a wood five miles in extent, and in Nor- 
man times the manor of Forfield*, or Fairfield, formed a part of 
the great forest of Feckenham, at which place the lords justices 
of the king's forest on this side Trent held their courts to de- 
termine causes concerning the breach of the forest lawsf." 

CLENT. 

This parish, lately a detached part of Staffordshire, was, till the 
reign of King Edward III., part of Worcestershire, and has been 
re-annexed to it by the Reform Bill. For the following facts 
respecting the antiquities of Clent, I am indebted to Mr. Timings, 
of that place. 

In or about the year 1790, a large jar, filled with Roman gold 
and silver coins, was discovered by a labourer of the name of 
Benjamin Phillips, as he was making a new pool on Clent Heath, 

* Forfield is mentioned in the " Codex Dip.," No. 212. 
+ See the " Eamhler in Worcestershire," pub. 1851, p. 225. 



136 

a little below where the battle between the Romans and Britons 
was fought. In 1793. some silver coins were found in a meadow 
at Old Mill. In another meadow lying east of this, a jar of gold 
and another of silver coins were found by labourers ; and about 
the same date, upon pulling down an old wall in Rowley Regis 
parish, there was discovered a jar containing a great number of 
Roman coins. 

Mr. Timings, in his " Guide to the Clent Hills," gives a full 
description of the position of the Roman and British armies, and 
the battles of Walton, Clatter-Batch, and Clent Heath, and par- 
ticularises the ancient trenches on Walton Hills, the rampart on 
Clent Hill, tumuli, urns, bones, coins, and skeletons; he also 
describes Bar Beacon, and other ancient relics. 

In his " History of the Antiquities of St. Kenelms," he 
describes the barbarous murder of the young Mercian King 
Kenelm, in the year 819, by his unnatural sister Quendreda and 
Ascobert ; his first burial at St. Kenelms, and removal to Winch- 
comb Abbey ; and the discovery of several Roman and Saxon 
coins at different times at St. Kenelms, which place is situated 
at the east end of the Clent Hills, one mile from Clent village. 

This murder is likewise recorded by Dr. Nash, in his History, 
at considerable length. 

HAGLEY. 

Dr. Nash, in mentioning this place (Vol. i., pp. 485, 486), 
says : " In ' Domesday Book ' it is written Hageleia, from the Saxon 
Haga, domus, and Leag, or Lega*, locus, being probably the chief 
residence of a great Saxon lord, and styled by way of eminence 
' The Manor Place.' " " Hagley affords some considerable 
remains of Roman antiquity : a large camp on Wichbury Hill f , 
having on the south side a double agger, or deep ditch, now 
covered with wood. Several coins of the lower empire have been 
found in the adjoining fields, and particularly an earthern pot 
filled with them was taken out of a pool on the side of the hill not 

* Leag is not locus, a place, but it is a lea or ley. See " Abberley." 
t There is also a hill called the Round Hill, by Wichbury Hill. 



137 

many years since. In 1738, a farmer, stubbing up an old tree 
which grew on the hill very near Wichbury Camp, discovered an 
iron chain almost rotten with age and rust, in which hung, as in 
a sling, a large round stone about the size of a man's head, a 
groove being cut quite round the stone the more commodiously to 
receive the chain. I have no doubt but this was a military 
weapon used by the Romans, though it is not exactly described 
by Vegetius, or any other ancient writer*. 

" On Clent Heath, about a mile and a half below Wichbury, 
are five barrows or lows, which were perhaps thrown up by the 
Romans f , the constant tradition of the inhabitants assigning them 
to those people ; and one which I caused to be opened several 
years ago affording a considerable quantity of burnt wood and 
ashes at the depth of fourteen feet. Two others have been since 
opened, in one of which, at about the depth of two feet, exactly 
in the centre, was discovered an urn filled with small human 
bones, very white, to the quantity of two quarts. The urn was 
broken all to pieces by the workman's spade, and appeared to be 
of very coarse ill-burnt clay J. At about the depth of two feet 
lower, on the west side of the tumulus, was found a pretty large 
quantity of bones, ashes, and burnt wood, lying promiscuously 
together. The last that we opened contained no urn ; but at the 
depth of two yards, exactly in the centre, was a circular cavity of 
about a foot diameter, and pretty nearly of that depth, filled 
wholly with human bones and burnt wood. I am of opinion that 
the Roman general or chief was honoured with an urn for his 
bones in the former of these two last-described lows or tumuli, and 
perhaps the bones of his principal officers are those which lay in 

* " Heame's Glossary to Bobert of Gloucester. — Mangonel, tormentum, 
catapulta bellica, mangonel ingin. ; — an old-fashioned sling (saith Cotgrave v. 
mangonneau,) or engine, whereout stones, old iron, &c, were violently darted. 
Some of the most ancient military weapons were slings. Our ancestors the 
Britons were expert at them. After slings, catapults, battering rams, and 
other engines." 

+ Or more probably by the ancient Britons ; see pp. 35, 36, as to Lowes- 
moor. 

I The character of the pottery tends to prove that the lows were ancient 
British. 



138 



the same low heaped together, but that the last-mentioned low 
contained the bones of the common soldiers, or some of them at 
least, who fell in the action. 

" The inhabitants of Clent and Hagley talk of an engagement 
which happened on this spot between the Romans and Britons, 
and say the former were encamped on Wiehbury and the latter on 
Clent Hill before the battle was fought. Harborow, which is the 
name of the lands and farm adjoining to the lows, carries in it 
something military, being a Saxon compound of tyejie (here) 
exercitus, and Bejtje (Berie) campus, i.e., a plain where an army 
is assembled. Thus Mr. Hearne etymologises Harborough in 
Leicestershire. 

" Probably a neighbouring stream, called Horestone Brook, was 
so denominated from a stone or rude pillar erected near it by the 
victorious Britons, it not being the practice of the Romans to 
erect such pillars ; and hence the learned Dr. Plott conjectures 
that Baston, in the neighbouring parish of Kenva^ur, is a British 
monument of a victory there obtained. A Roman road passes 
through part of Hagley Common, and is now called the King's 
Headland ; but I have some suspicion it was more anciently 
called the Portway, a name common to the Roman military high- 
ways ; for in a court roll of the manor of Clent, temp. Elizabeth, 
mention is made of a road styled the Portway, on the Lord's 
Waste, which could be no other than Clent Heath, adjoining to 
Hagley. A very rare and singular piece of antiquity, a small 
image of stone, about two inches in length, was found in 1752, 
at a considerable depth within a ragstone quarry, in Hagley Park. 
It is a very rude figure of a man, but ending in a term. The 
ablest antiquaries, to whose inspection it has been submitted, 
have all pronounced it Phoenician, being too rude for the work of 
a Roman artist : British it could not be, as the ancient Britons 
allowed of no emgiated idol. This image agrees in all respects 
with the teraphim mentioned in Scripture." 

I have extracted the whole of the above passage, because it 
strongly bears upon our ancient British antiquities, which I have 
described in the account of the hills. I have been informed by 
Mr. Timings, of Holy Cross House, Clent, that near Wichbury 



139 

Hill, round hewn stones are frequently found, supposed to have 
been used by the Roman slingers in their battles. 

There is a piece of land called Harbourough Ash, in Chad- 
desley Corbett; Harbour Hill, in Claines, near Worcester; 
Harbour's Hill Piece, in Stoke Prior; Harborough Hill*, in 
Shelsley Beauchamp, and Cold Harborough, or Cold Harbour, in 
Hindlip or Inlip. The latter name, with its alias, may tend to 
throw some light upon the etymology of the names of many places 
called Cold Harbour, noticed in the " Archseologia," 1849, 
No. 1, Vol. xxxiii., p. 125, &c. The writer of that paper in the 
" Archaeologiaf" endeavours to prove that, as the name Cold 
Harbour very frequently occurs at the angles or turns, and also 
at the junctions of Roman or more ancient roads, such places may 
have been so called by the Romans and Anglo-Romans, after the 
significant tortuosities of the coluber ; and that the term coluber 
may have been a vestige of the once almost universal ophite or 
serpent worship. He also refers to the opinion of some anti- 
quaries, that the w 7 ord " Harbour" means a port, and that the prefix 
" Cold" comes from the word col, kohle, carbo. He likewise mentions 
various other conjectures ; for instance, that the prefix refers to 
the bleak or exposed situation of the places in question ; that the 
name Harbour comes from the Saxon hereberga, a post-watch on 
a hill, statio militaris ; that both the names come from the Latin 
caula-arva (British cobail-arbar), meaning enclosed or cleared 
spaces for cultivation among the woods and forests which formerly 
covered England. 

In " Notes and Queries j" it is suggested by one writer that 
here-burh is an inland station for an army, in the same sense as 
a harbour for ships on the coast ; that Cold is a corruption for 

* There is Harbourne Meadow, in Nortlifield; but this name most probably 
means " Hoar-bourne ; i. e. Hoar a bound, and Bourn a rivulet, from the 
Anglo-Saxon Burne. — See " Hoar Stones," Chap. IV. thereon. There is a 
parish called Harborne, or Harbourn, in Staffordshire, which is bounded by 
Bourn Brook on the south side of it, where Staffordshire and Worcestershire 
unite. 

+ Captain W. H. Smyth, K.N., Director of the Society of Antiquaries of 
London. 

J Vol. ii., No. 51, Oct. 19, 1850, p. 341. 



140 

" Col ;" that Colerna in Wiltshire fortunately retains the original 
orthography, and in Anglo-Saxon literally signifies the habitation 
or settlement of a colony; and that all these " Col-harbours" 
mark the settlements, farms, out-posts, or garrisons of the Roman 
colonies planted here. It is therein likewise suggested by another 
writer that the word Cold or Cole may originally have been the 
Anglo-Saxon Col, and the entire expression have designated a 
cool summer residence by a river's side, or on an eminence ; that 
the denomination appears to be the modern English for the 
A. S. Col Hereberg ; and that Colburn, Colebrook, and Cold- 
stream are analagous denominations*. 

It is stated in the " Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of 
London f," that, on January 16th, 1851, "a letter from Benjamin 
Williams, Esq., F.S.A., addressed to Sir Henry Ellis, was read 
in further illustration of the etymology of Cold Herbergh, or 
Harbour. A celebrated Anglo-Saxon scholar, he observes, writing 
to the editor of ' Notes and Queries,' remarks, that the spots 
called Cole or Cold Harbours are not always in cold situations. In 
corroboration of this, Mr. Williams observes, that according to 
Hire's " Dictionarium Suio-Gothicum," there is, or rather was, the 
Swedish word Kol, signifying fire, the very opposite of cool ; in 
that sense, however, there are various dialects of Germany and 
the north, in which the word Kol is used as denoting heat. The 
culinse of the ancients, the places where they kept living animals 
destined for sacrifice, Mr. Williams derives from the same 
source." 

In the " Art Journal," No. 156 J, there is a paper " On the 
Domestic Manners of the English during the middle ages, by 
Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A., &c," wherein it is remarked as 
" not improbable that the ruins of Roman villas, and small 
stations, which stood by the sides of roads, were often roughly 
repaired or modified so as to furnish a temporary shelter for 
travellers who carried provisions, &c. with them, and could, 

* It must be here observed that the word " Col "in Anglo-Saxon signifies a 
peak or sharp hillock. 
+ Vol. ii., 1851, No. 25. 



141 

therefore, lodge themselves without depending upon the assistance 
of others. A shelter of this kind, from its consisting of bare 
walls, a mere shelter against the inclemency of the storm, might 
be termed a ceald-hereberga (cold harbour), and this would account 
for the great number of places in different parts of England 
which bear this name, and which are almost always on Eoman 
sites, and near old roads. The explanation is supported by the 
circumstance, that the name is found among the Teutonic nations 
on the Continent. The German kalten-herberg, borne by some 
inns at the present day." 

Cold Harbour, the place in question, is situate by Smite Hill * 
in Hindlip. It most probably lay in the line of " The Western 
Trackway" from Worcester to Droitwich. — See Salwarp, pp. 109, 
110 ; and also Iter XV. And it is worthy of remark, in corrobo- 
ration of Captain Smyth's account of these localities, that no less 
than four roads or old lanes intersect each other at Cold Harbour f, 
the situation of which I am informed is generally flat, with the 
exception of oue field called Castle Hill, which abuts on Smite 
Hill, and from its appearance might be supposed to scarp 
artificially. 

It is said that a castle or fort once stood on Castle Hill, and 
was at length destroyed by a battery placed on Newland Common. 
A cannon shot was about forty years ago ploughed up somewhere 
on the spot. Heming's " Cartulary J" notices a place called 
Oldbury in the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Smite. It adjoins 
Castle Hill Field, and is commonly called Auld-berry §. 

In the account of the Malvern Hills I have given a list of 
various places in Worcestershire, the names of which have the 
prefix Coll, Col, Cold, and Cald ; perhaps this prefix may originate 
in various sources, and it therefore becomes necessary that the 
history or nature of such' places should be considered in order to 
ascertain the derivation of their names. Some may be derived 

* See Warnclon, Iter XV., as to this hill having been the scene of a battle 
between the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, 
t See the Ordnance Map. 
+ Vol. ii., p. 355. 
§ See pp. 34, 35, for the etymology of the name. 



142 

from Coluber, others from the Latin Collis, a hill ; others from 
the Anglo-Saxon word Col ; others from the Swedish word Kol ; 
and others, again, from the bleakness or coldness of the situation, 
or of its accommodation, &c. 

In Halli well's " Glossary of Archaic Words, 1 ' " Col" is given as 
meaning " charcoal." Now, it is not improbable that charcoal 
may have been burnt at some of these stations, as the Swedish 
" Kol" before mentioned would seem to indicate. 

In Lulsley there is a farm called Cold Place, a corruption of 
Colles Place, Colles or Coles having been the name of its owners 
during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I*. Here, 
then, we have a clear case, that the name Colles was corrupted 
into Cold, and in like manner the Latin words Coluber and Collis, 
or Col, the Anglo-Saxon Col, and the Swedish Kol may, in some 
cases, have been similarly changed. 

With respect to Hoar-Stone Brook previously mentioned, I 
here observe, that upon the border of Sapey Brook, in the parish 
of Tedstone Delamere, in Herefordshire, there is a high and large 
mass of calcareous incrustations, or travertine f, called the Hoar 
Stone, which, in the first edition of this work, I suggested was so 
named from its whitish appearance ; but the better opinion of 
Mr. Hamper upon the subject is given in the latter part of this 
work in the account of " Hoar Stones." 

HALES OWEN; 

FORMERLY CALLED HALES, AND HALAS. 

This parish, until 1832, was situated partly in Shropshire and 
partly in Worcestershire ; the whole, however, was in the latter 
county till the time of the Conquest, and has been re-annexed to 
it again by the Reform Bill. Dr. Nash J says : — " This parish 

* See the account of Lulsley, and of Folk Lore in Lulsley, and the legend 
of Old Coles. 

+ There is a much greater mass of travertine, called Southstones Rock, near 
Stanford Court, in this county, the property of Sir T. E. Wilmington, Bart. — 
See the account of Stanford. 

J " History," Vol. i., p. 509. 



143 

affords some Roman antiquities. A military road, called the 
Portway, passes through Warley Wigorn, and probably is a 
branch from the great Roman Ykenyld* Street, which passes 
within a very few miles of this place in its course from Edgbaston 
to Wall, near Litchfield, the Etocetum of the " Itinerary." In the 
road leading from Causeway Green, in Warley Wigorn, towards 
Oldbury, and near Langley, were found great quantities of iron 
cinders : whether they were British, Roman, or Saxon, I will not 
affirm f, but great quantities have of late years been carried away 
and worked over again to advantage. — (See Pennant's ' Tour in 
Wales," Vol. i., page 64, where he mentions the same kind 
of cinders to have been discovered in other parts of the 
kingdom.') 

"A place called the Quintan, lying in Hales parish, so 
denominated from the ancient Roman sport still practised here, 
proves the Romans to have been stationed in this place. The 
learned antiquary, Bishop Kennett, in his ' Parochial Anti- 
quities of Burcester,' observes, that ' running at the Quintan 
was not continued in any part of Oxfordshire, except where 
the Roman ways did run, or where some Roman garrison had 
been placed.' In page 521, the Doctor, in his description of 
Oldbury Manor, situated in the then Shropshire part of Hales 
parish, added that ' Oldbury denoted a Roman camp or station ; 
and that a Roman road, called the Portway, passed very near, if 
not through it;' that ' the Portway seems to have been a vicinal 
road, branching from the Ykenyld or Rycnyld Street;' and that 
' at Oldbury, in Wilts, there is a remarkable Roman camp, and 
in Warwick and Gloucestershire are villages so called, that were 
undoubted Roman stations." 

I have previously noticed a place called Oldbury in the parish 
of Saint John, near Worcester. 

DUDLEY. 

This place derives its name from Dodo, or Dudo, a Saxon 
prince, by whom it was owned at the time of the heptarchy, and 

* Or Rycknield Street. 

+ Vide what has been previously said under the head " Worcester," p. 2, &c. 



144 

who built a castle here about the year 700. In " Domesday 
Book," it is called Dudelei. Dr. Nash says Dudley means 
the field of Dodo*. There is " Greystonef Field" in this 
parish. 

WASSAL HILL AND KENVAUR (OR KINVER) EDGE. 

Dr. Nash, in his account of the parish of Kidderminster, 
says : — " On Wassal Hill, about half a mile from the banks of 
the Severn, are the remains of a small station or camp ; it lies 
about four or five miles west of a larger camp, on Kenvaur Edge. 
About the same distance east of Kenvaur Edge, on Wichbury 
Hill, there was another. These probably were the posts of Henry 
IV., when he blocked up Owen Glyndwr, after the burning of 
Worcester, 1405." — (See " Monstrelet," c. v. ; and Hall's 
" Chronicles," pp. 18, 19.) 

Within the parish of Kinver, or Kinfare, Co. Stafford, " is an 
ancient fortification, forming a parallelogram, deeply intrenched 
on two sides, and on the other two defended by a hill. In the 
neighbourhood is a tumulus ; and here also was a large block of 
stone, called Battlestone, six feet high, and about twelve in girth ; 
but it has been removed];." 

Near Kinvaur Edge, on the Pigeon House estate, there is a 
remarkable sandstone, called " Bolt Stone." It runs rather 
tapering towards the top, and is said to be about seven feet high, 
and four feet square at the base. This stone went also by another 
name, as will appear by the following extract from " The Rambler 
in Worcestershire §": — "'The Giant's Throw' was an upright 
stone of considerable magnitude, about a mile from Kinver Edge, 
and which, local tradition says, was thrown there by a giant 
standing on the Edge (it is generally customary to assign these 
wonders to the devil) ; but the best authorities believe it was an 
ancient British monument. It was removed by the owner of the 

* See Iter XVIII., title " Oddingley," as to Dodo. 
+ See the account of Hoar Stones. 
I Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary." 
§ Published 1851, p. 249. 



145 

field about ten years ago, and broken to pieces, because it was in 
the way of his plough." 

OVER ARLEY. 

Dr. Nash, in the Appendix to the second Vol. of his " History," 
quotes the following account, from Bishop Lyttelton, of the 
antiquities of Over Arley (which is not in Worcestershire, 
but Staffordshire) : — 

" Some considerable Roman antiquities occur within the 
bounds of this manor. On the eastern limits I find an ancient 
road called the iWtway (a name common to Roman vicinal 
ways throughout the kingdom), which probably led from Bra- 
nogenium (Worcester) to Uriconium (Wroxeter), and is at this 
day the post-road from Worcester to Shrewsbury- ; which latter 
rose out of the ruins of the ancient Uriconium. In Wulfruna's 
grant of this manor to the church of Hampton (from her entitled 
Wolverhampton f), the metes and bounds thereof are particularly 
described ; among which, one is denominated fCftAce or the 
street, by which the Saxons generally meant a Roman road or 
highway ; and this doubtless was the same with the present portway. 

" A large Roman camp also remains here, situated in Arley 
Wood, being nearly an exact square, with double, and on one side 
treble ditches. It was probably the work of Ostorius, who 
fortified many places near and upon the banks of the Severn, 
during his conflicts with the Silures and Ordovices. Query, too, 
if Castle Field, on the west side of the river, but within the 
manor of Arley, was not thus named from the Romans encamping 
there ; as no ruins of a castle, or any tradition of there ever 
having been one here, remains." 

It is stated in Lewis's "" Topographical Dictionary," that, at 
Hawkbatch, " a Roman town and bridge are said to have 
existed ; and many Roman coins have been found in that part of 
the parish." 

* An account of this portway, from Kenchester to Worcester, and from 
Worcester to Over Arley, is given in the latter part of this work. 
+ Dugdale's " Monasticon," Tom. i., fo. 988. 

L 



146 
RIBBESFOBD AND BEWDLEY. 

In the collection of miscellanea bequeathed to the Society of 
Antiquaries in London, by the late Dr. Prattinton, of Bewdley, 
is a celt of greenish stone, found in the bed of the river Severn at 
Kibbesford, on digging for gravel. The Doctor stated that he had 
it from William Parsons, Esq. The one end of it is a maul and 
the other an axe. (See an engraving of it, Plate 4, No. 5, page 
98.) This celt is much smaller than the larger of the two found 
at Grimley*, being only five inches long, two inches and a quarter 
broad, two inches wide at one end, and one inch and a half at the 
centre. It weighs sixteen ounces. 

One exactly similar, found hi Ashton valley, is delineated in 
Sir K. C. Hoare's " Ancient Wilts," PI. 8, p. 79. 

Eibbesford, in Heming's " Cartulary," is called Eebetforde, 
and in " Domesday," Eibforde. 

Bewdley, in Eibbesford, is supposed to be so called from 
" Beaulieu," meaning a beautiful situation. 

TICKENHILL. 

It is stated in Cooke's " Topographical Library," (title Worces- 
tershire, page 116,) that " a gold coin, of the Emperor Tiberius, 
was found, in a state of uncommon preservation, in the ancient 
forest of Wyre, about the year 1770 f." The above place is in 
the parish of Eibbesford. 

SODDINGTON IN MAMBLE. 

Laird's " Topographical and Historical Description of Worces- 
tershire," pp. 276 to 279, contains the following description of 
ancient relics discovered at Soddington, in this parish, a few 
miles east of Tenbury, upon taking down the old mansion of the 
Blount's family, and digging up the foundations in 1807 : — " In 
digging beneath the oldest part of the farm, at the depth of about 
three feet, they struck upon an ancient focus formed of thin 

* See the account of Grimley. 

f Also vide Nash's " History," Vol. ii., p. 277. 



X 



147 

bricks, which had each of them a semicircular termination, and 
had evidently been framed in a similar mould. In digging at a 
small distance from the focus, five feet below the level of it, a 
pavement, laid with large thin bricks, such as the Romans are 
known to have used, and as are commonly to be met with at 
Verulam and other Roman cities, was discovered. 

" In levelling the ground near the house of Soddington, the 
labourers also dug up a vast number of curious tubes, which 
seemed to have formed an ancient aqueduct, the existence of 
which was previously unknown to any of the inhabitants, even by 
tradition. These tubes were formed of the finest clay, and ex- 
ceedingly well baked, being of a grey colour on the outside, and, 
when broken, of a dark colour in the interior. They appeared to 
be exactly of the same composition with the common Roman 
urns. Each tube was about two feet long, and about four inches 
in the total diameter, though the aperture for conveying the 
water was not more than one inch and three quarters. At one 
end were hollow tenons, and mortices at the other, all exactly 
fitted, to be air-tight without the intervention of mortar. 

" They were laid in the direction of a spring, which flows at 
the distance of a mile and a half from Soddington, at the summit 
of an eminence still higher than the site of the mansion, and they 
were traced a considerable part of the way to it. 

" But the most curious discovery, as related by an eye-witness, 
occurred in a field within a quarter of a mile of the old house, 
where, in levelling a hillock on which an oak, quite decayed 
with age, besides other trees, stood, the workmen found, at the 
depth of about two feet from the sod, a complete brick-kiln con- 
sisting, by computation, of ten thousand bricks, the greater part 
of which were well burnt, but the rest only half ready for use. 
It was noticed that the kiln was not made as kilns usually are at 
present ; but, unfortunately, there was no person there qualified 
to give a correct description of it. The bricks also were both 
larger and thinner than those of the present day." 

Mr. Milner*, who gave the account, thought Soddington was a 

* " Gentleman's Magazine," Vol. lxxvii., p. 1009. 



148 

Roman fort, the ground on the sides of it still bearing certain 
vestiges of a Roman intrenchment, and that the brick-kiln was 
worked by the Romans just before they abandoned the island, 
about the year 418. 

STOCKTON. 

Laird (page 285) speaking of Stockton Church and Village, 
says, " The hill seems to be cut into ancient intrenchments ; but 
we could not procure any information respecting them, nor can 
we find it even mentioned by any writer whatsoever." 

LINDRIDGE. 

There is a Toothill in this parish, the particulars of which will 
be given under the head Toothills, where the subject is fully 
considered. 

A hone, or flaying-knife, was found a few years ago in this 
parish, the particulars of which, accompanied by a drawing, I 
sent to the Archaeological Institute. The following notice of it 
appeared in their Journal, Vol. vi., p. 409. " Drawing of an 
implement, supposed to be of the early British period, formed of 
a green-coloured stone, and found six feet below the surface, 
in a gravel-bed, at Lindridge. It is a kind of chisel, or 
possibly it may have been used as a flaying-knife. At one end 
there are two perforations, and a third hole drilled only partly 
through. Dimensions : — length, four and three quarter inches ; 
breadth, one inch ; thickness, about a quarter of an inch, dimi- 
nishing towards the ends. It was presented to the Museum of 
the Worcestershire Natural History Society, by the Rev. Thomas 
Pearson, of Witley. 

" The objects of stone, found in barrows in Wiltshire by Sir 
Richard Hoare (' Ancient Wilts.,' PI. 2, 12, &c), mostly per- 
forated at the ends, and similar to this in general form, but not 
sharpened at the extremity, have been regarded as ornaments, or 
as whetstones*. Possibly, the curious example above given may 

* See the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. vi., p. 198, as to a 
whetstone, found with other Roman remains at Ickleton. 



149 



have answered a double purpose, both as a hone and an edged tool. 
(See also ' Archaeological Journal,' Vol. v., pp. 282, 293, 323." 




The accompanying woodcut represents both its breadth and 
thickness. 

HOLT. 

A looped bronzed celt was found in the year 1844, in the 
middle of the bed of the river Severn, about three feet six inches 
under the gravel, as the workmen were dredging midway between 
the bridge and the entrance of the cutting for the Lock, for the 
purposes of the Severn navigation improvements. It is four 
inches and a quarter in length. (See an engraving thereof, Plate 
4, No. 6, page 98.) 

The tongue of a fibula, of the same length as the celt, was 
also found about eighteen feet below the surface, and about 200 
yards from the river, in the cutting outside the south gates of the 
Lock. (See an engraving of it, Plate 4, No. 7, page 98.) 

These relics are, I believe, in the possession of Mr. George 
Edwards, the civil engineer, on the works. 

WICHENFORD. 

I have in my possession two Roman coins which were lately 
found upon digging up the foundation of an old building at the 
farm called Woodend, in this parish. The one is a coin of Vic- 
torinus, the other of Constans. The obverse of the latter has 
the portrait of the sovereign, with a globe in his hand, and the 
inscription DN. CONSTANS, P.F. AVG. ; on the reverse is 
the figure of the emperor armed, in a grotto or hiding-place, 
leading out a boy, supposed to be one of the Christians, by the 
hand, thereby indicating his guardian care of them, with the in- 



150 

scription, FEL i TEMP i KEPARATIO. P.L.C. A similar 
coin is delineated in Paten's work on Roman coins (pp. 471, 472, 
figure 5), accompanied by an interesting description. 

GRIMLEY. 

An ancient British stone celt, in the possession of Mr. John 
Evans, late of Worcester, was found in the year 1835, by a work- 
man, in a gravel bed, several feet beneath the surface, near Ball 
Mill, in this parish. The bed lies upon rather elevated ground 
on the western side of the Severn, nearly opposite to Bevere 
Island, and within a short distance of it. The celt is five inches 
long, two inches broad at one end, one inch and six-eighths at the 
other; one inch and an eighth broad, and one inch and six 
eighths thick in the middle ; it weighs nine ounces and a half ; is 
edged at both ends, but the one end has been rather blunted and 
lessened a little by use. It has a hole through it for a handle. 
Two views thereof are represented in the engraving, Plate 4, 
Nos. 8 and 9, page 98. 

An ancient British celt, or stone axe, was, a few years ago, 
found by the brick-makers while digging for brick earth at Grim- 
ley Ham, fourteen feet deep in the alluvial soil, at the distance 
of about 127 yards from the Severn. It is in the possession of 
Mr. Amphlett of Farfield. It weighs eight pounds five ounces 
and a half, is nine inches and a half long, three inches broad, 
four inches thick at the blunt end, and three inches and a half 
broad at the sharp end : the hole for the handle is an inch and 
three quarters in diameter ; the stone is a species of basalt. (See 
an engraving of it, Plate 4, No 10, page 98.) 

There are several stone axes in the Scarborough Museum* ; 
the largest one, found at Scalby, and made of basalt, is nearly the 
same in size and shape as the one in question. When I visited 
the spot at Grimley Ham, there was an appearance as if an old 
dyke had been buried there by the alluvium, which would partly 
account for the great depth at which the axe lay. 

* See my account of them in the " Archseologia," Vol. xxx., pp. 458-462. 



151 
BEVERE ISLAND. 

The several coins in my possession (the particulars of which 
are stated below) were collected by a gentleman of Bevere, in 
Claines parish. Some of them, it is said, were found on Bevere * 
Island, but of this I am not certain. 

A colonial coin of Augustus and Agrippa, with their joint 
portraits on the obverse; and on the reverse the words " Col. 
Nem." (Colonia Nemaususf), with a crocodile chained to a palm 
tree, an apt emblem of their victories in Egypt. A coin of Tibe- 
rius, with his portrait. Also one with his whole figure in a sitting 
posture, and which should contain the legend " Civitatibus Asise 
Restitutus" J, but it is obliterated. Coins of Galba, Vespasian, 
Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Antoninus, Dioclesian, Constantiue 
the Great, and Valentinian, with their portraits. A consecration 
coin of Faustina, the wife of Antoninus Pius, with her portrait ; 
the inscription " Diva Faustina" on the obverse, and Juno on the 
reverse. Also a Greek coin, with a head of a female on the 
obverse, and a dragon or monster, and the Greek word Macracc 
on the reverse, showing that it was a colonial coin of Massilia (the 
modern Marseilles). 

About the year 1809, an ancient British bronze celt, or knife, 
was dug up in Bevere Island. It is four inches and one- 
eighth long, two inches and three-eighths broad at the widest end, 
one inch and three-eighths broad at the middle, six-eighths of an 
inch broad at the narrowest end, and two-eighths of an inch thick 
in the centre. It weighs six ounces and three quarters, and is 
rather sharp at both ends, but most so at the smallest end. It 
is now in the possession of Mrs. Spriggs, of Worcester. (See an 
engraving of it, PI. 4, No. 11, p. 98.) 

I was informed by the -late Sir S. R. Meyrick, that the imple- 
ment in question was used as a knife, and was held between the 
finger and thumb like those of stone described in Keats 's account 
of the Pelew Islands. 

* So called from beavers having formerly frequented it. 

+ The modern Nimes in France. 

J These cities had been destroyed by an earthquake. 



152 

There is an ancient flint knife, something similar, delineated 
in PI. 36 of Vol. xv. of the " Archssologia," p. 349, which was 
found in the parish of Kiltaran, in Galway. There is also another 
of flint in the Scarborough Museum*, four inches and a half 
long, which was found at Pickering in Yorkshire. 

Bevere Island lies about three miles north of the city of 
Worcester. 

THE HILLS. 

I shall now attempt to give some account of the origin of the 
names, and also the antiquities, of several of the hills of Wor- 
cestershire. 

Our first range will be the beautiful chain on the western side 
of the county, running parallel with the right bank of the Severn, 
at a distance from it of from four to five miles. This chain com. 
prehends the Malvern, Old Storage, Ankerdine, Berrow, Wood- 
bury, and Abberley Hills. I shall then advert to the Tot, Toot, 
or Teut Hills, lying about two miles off the eastern or left side of 
the Severn. These are Cruckbarrow, Elbury, and Tutnall ; the 
first of which faces Great Malvern and Old Storage Hills ; the 
second, Ankerdine Hill ; and the last fronts the Berrow, Wood- 
bury, and Abberley Hills. Towbury Hill Camp, before described, 
faces the camp on Little Malvern Hill ; but these two last do 
not strictly belong to Worcestershire, being just without the 
border. Some parts, adjacent to these hills, will likewise be 
noticed in speaking of the Toot Hills generally. 

The whole of this region has been very fully described, in a 
geological point of view, by Sir Koderick Impey Murchison, in 
his work on the Silurian System ; and is also referred to in my 
pamphlet on the Old Ked Sandstone of Worcestershire and Here- 
fordshire, published in 1835 f. 

* See my account thereof in Vol. xxx. of the " Archseologia," p. 461. 

+ I take this opportunity of stating that I am induced, hy a further ac- 
quaintance with geology, to retract many of the views advanced in the above 
pamphlet, respecting the circular and semicircular marks in the old red 
sandstone of that locality, as mammalia have not been discovered in such sand- 
stone, although fossil reptiles have lately been found therein in Devonshire. 



153 



Iter If. 



MALVERN HILLS. 

Dr. Nash (Vol. ii., p. 121) says that the name Malvern is pro- 
bably derived from the British word Moel, signifying bald, and 
Wern, alders, importing a bald hill, with alders at the bottom ; 
or rather from Moel, which, in British, signifies a mountain, and 
he cites several authorities upon the subject. 

It seems to me more probable that the syllable " vern " is derived 
from the British words " Sara," or " Yarn," which respectively 
mean a pavement or seat of judgment- ; if so, the name would 
signify the mountain of the seat of judgment, or the high court 
or seat of judgment f, proving it to have been an important 
station of the Druids. 

In corroboration of this view it may be remarked that the Mal- 
vern range contains what is considered to be an ancient British 
triangular-shaped campj, and is surrounded by other camps, 
stations, and antiquities, both British and Roman. In addition 
to this it is crossed by primitive roads §, some of which have 
already been described, and others will be noticed in the subse- 
quent part of this work. 

The Malvern Hills, and a piece of land called " Ambers," in 

* See p. 128 respecting these names, also the section relative to the Am- 
brosiae Petrae. 

+ Malvern is spelled Malfema in "Domesday Book;" and it mentions 
Malvertone, Co. Warwick, and Malveselle and MalveshUle, Co. Hereford. 

I The sacred altars appear in some instances to have been within the 
camps, see the heads " Ambrosias Petrae," and " Ancient Koads ;" therefore 
the Herefordshire Beacon Camp most probably contained a sacred altar, as 
well as a seat of judgment. 

§ Particularly the Ridge Way. 



154 

Castle Morton, Fire Hill Field and Tyre Hill in Welland, 
Crookberrow and Elsborough in the Berrow and Pendock, Tuts- 
hill and Gadbury Banks in Eldersfield, Sarn Hill or Sern Hill in 
Bushley, the Mythe Tute near Tewkesbury, the Bambury or Ban- 
bury Stone in Kemerton Camp on Bredon Hill, and Starn Hill 
in the parish of Elniley Castle, are all nearly in a line with 
each other. 

Jones, in his " Brecknockshire," Vol. i., p. 26, makes Moel-y- 
Yarn, which is pure Welsh, signify the high court, or seat of 
judgment*. 

There is a hill in Stourbridge which was formerly called Yarn- 
borough, but is now called Amburyf. Likewise a camp called 
Yarnbury, Yarnsbury, or Yanesbury, in Wiltshire, relative to 
which it is stated in Gough's " Camden," that " against the Ro- 
manity of Yarnsbury or Yanesbury Camp, it has been urged that 
Roman camps were generally square and single trenched, whereas 
this is double. Its being oval and so much like Bratton, only 
bigger, would induce one to think it Danish, and perhaps its 
name, with a small alteration of sound, implies as much." — Still, 
however, I feel inclined to consider it British. 

HEREFORDSHIRE BEACON. 

King, in his " Munimenta Antiqua," states that " there are a 
vast number of strong intrenchments in all parts of this island, of 
a very peculiar kind, situated chiefly on the tops of natural hills, 
and which can be attributed to none of the various people who 
have ever dwelt in the adjacent country, except to the ancient 
Britons ; although indeed the subsequent conquerors, Romans, 
Saxons, Danes, and even the Normans, have on certain emergen- 
cies made use of them, on account of their great original strength. 
One of the most important and considerable is situated in a spot 
that could not but be an object of the utmost attention to the 
original inhabitants of those territories, which afterwards were 
deemed distinctly England and Wales. This is the Herefordshire 

* See Chambers's " General History of Malvern," published 1817, p. 276. 
t See Sarn Hills, p. 128. 



155 

Beacon, commanding that which was once the only pass through 
the Malvern ridge of hills, and which, indeed, is very nearly so to 
the present hour." 

Beyond the camp, to the south, there is a smaller intrenchment. 

Dr. Nash has thus described the Herefordshire Beacon camp, 
in Vol. ii., p. 141, of his " History," under the head of "Little 
Malvern :" — " This little parish is a retired, romantic spot, lying 
on the eastern side of the hill, and running up to its summit, 
where is a camp, with a treble ditch, an exact plan of which is 
here given for the amusement of the curious. Some have imagined 
it Eoman, because of the prastorium, or centre part, and the name 
of the parish in which the greater part of it is situated, Coil- 
wall*, that is, Collis Vallum. Some Roman remains in Here- 
fordshire are called Walles, and Severus's Wall in the north is 
called G-ual Sever, or Vallum Severi. But the shape of this 
camp doth not show it to be Roman, though I know not to what 
age to attribute it, as it is not mentioned by any author I know 
of, either in print or MS f. It was certainly prior to the partition 
trench before mentioned, which divides the counties of Worcester 
and Hereford ; for the outward trench of the camp serves for part 
of this ditch. 

" Within the distance of a musket-shot of the trenches of the 
camp, in the parish of Colwall, in Herefordshire, was found, in 
the year 1650, by Thomas Tayler, near Burstners Cross, as he 
was digging a ditch round his cottage, a coronet or bracelet of 
gold, set with precious stones, of a size to be drawn over the arm 
and sleeve. It was sold to Mr. Hill, a goldsmith in Gloucester, 
for thirty-seven pounds ; Hill sold it to a jeweller in Lombard 
Street, London, for two hundred and fifty pounds, and the jeweller 
sold the stones, which were deeply inlaid, for fifteen hundred 
pounds, as Mr. Clough, of Lombard Street, reported];. The 

* Col, in Anglo Saxon, signifies a peak or sharp hillock. 

+ The late Rev, Dr. Card, Vicar of Great Malvern, in his " Dissertation on 
the subject of the Herefordshire Beacon," says, in p. 42, " I must take it for 
granted that he (Dr. Nash) never met with the story of Gray, hinting that it 
was occupied by Caractacus." 

I " MS. in Jesus College Library, Oxford." 



156 

register of Colwall has been searched, and I find that Thomas 
Tayler lived there about that time ; and when his death is entered 
there is a mark put to his name, as if something memorable had 
happened to him." 

Dr. Nash* states that " the coronet of gold found near Malvern 
Camp had probably belonged to some British or Anglo-Saxon 
monarch, who, expecting an assault, or meditating an escape from 
these fortifications, might bury this badge of royalty to prevent its 
falling into the hands of his enemies." 

Mr. Chambers also says, " It was supposed that the gold alone 
of this coronet might have been worth £.1,000, which, added to 
the value of the diamonds above-mentioned, amounted to the 
the amazing sum of £.2,500, for which the peasant who found it 
received but £.37-f\" 

Dr. Card, in his " Dissertation," has adduced several reasons 
for believing that the Herefordshire Beacon was either the work 
of the ancient Britons, at or before Caesar's invasion, or the work 
of Caractacus. He argues principally in favour of the latter hypo- 
thesis and remarks, in p. 40, that " if Roman coins should be dis- 
covered in any part of the work, they would merely indicate that 
these invaders occupied it at some period, which is by no 
means improbable, notwithstanding the non-existence of any 
Roman road in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, the 
coronet of gold, mentioned by Camden, as having been dug up 
about a musket-shot on the north-west side, in the parish of Col- 
wall, a.d. 1650, cannot be admitted as any proof of the period at 
which, or the persons by whom, the fortifications were primarily 
constructed. It is, however, an incontrovertible fact, that the 
country between the Wye and the Severn was the theatre of con- 
tinual intestine wars, in times subsequent to the Roman invasion, 
and that the Welsh princes wore coronets of a similar shape, as 
the following extracts from the ' History of Wales,' by Caradoc of 
Llancarvan, translated by the erudite Dr. Powell, will sufficiently 

* " History," Vol. ii, p. 29, of the Corrections and Additions. 

+ Mr. Kemble, in his " Saxons in England," speaking of the ensigns of 
royalty says, " among the Saxons the cynehelm, or cynebeah, a circle of gold, 
was in use, and worn round the head." 



157 

demonstrate : ' Roderic, King of Wales, divided his kingdom be- 
tween his three sons, and because they (each) wore a coronet of 
gold indented upwards and inlaid with precious stones on their 
helmets, they were called the three crowned princes.' About 
a.d. 877. These chieftains were finally driven to the country 
beyond the Wye by Athelstan, between the years 924 and 939, 
consequently the ornament must have been lost at some period 
anterior to the latter date." 

The learned Doctor, however, was mistaken, in speaking of the 
non-existence of any Roman road in the neighbourhood ; for 
there is Evendine Street, leading from the Herefordshire Beacon 
Hill towards Colwall Village*, the Pendock Portway in the 
Berrow, and Keysend Street, Lime Street, Rock Street, Wick- 
ridge Street, Wood Street, Wain Street, Rye Street, Birt Street, 
Drake Street, Robertson Street, and Poolend Street — all in the 
neighbourhood, in the lines of the ancient roads which ran from 
Wall Hills Camp and the Malvern Hills to various places. 

Several writers have supposed that Caractacus, for a season, 
made a stand against Ostorius, at the Herefordshire Beacon 
Campf; but finding, after many struggles, that he could not 
defend his eastern frontier against the enemy, he retreated north- 
westward towards the mountainous regions of the Ordo vices J. 

In the " Archa3ologia§," there is an account, by A. J. Kempe, 
Esq., F.S.A., of an intrenched camp at Wimbleton, Surrey, 
wherein he states, that " writers on the military antiquities of 
Britain have considered that it was a principle of tactics with the 
Britons to arrange their forces on concentric circles of ramparts, 
rising one above the other ; and that the celebrated Herefordshire 
Beacon, on the Malvern Hills, is a remarkable specimen of that 
mode of defence." 

In Layamon's " Brut! ||," supposed to have been written in the 

* This probably was occupied by the Eoman garrison. 

+ About twenty miles south-westward of this camp there is a square camp, 
called Caradoc, situate in the parish of Sellack (or Sele Chyrch), on the Wye, 
in Herefordshire. 

j Tacitus says : — " Transfert bellum in Ordovicas." 

§ Vol. xxxi., Part ii., Appendix, pp. 518-521. 

|| Vol. hi., pp. 200, 201. 



158 

commencement of King John's reign, there is the following 
passage, as translated by Sir Frederick Madden : — " In North 
Wales was a king, Cadwan the Keen (named Cadigan) ; of South 
Wales was Margadud, fairest of all men (knight fairest of all) : 
they held all the good land into Severn, from the upper end, that 
floweth into the sea. In Malvern, near Severn, Margadud, the 
king, dwelt, with very mickle folk ; and Athelstan to him 
advanced, the king of this nation, and held them exceeding hard, 
and greeted them with harm, and drove them with his weapons 
out over the Wye, and took from them the land that lieth there 
betwixt ; the Severn and Wye, they possessed it not afterwards." 
This passage tends to throw further light upon Dr. Card's account 
relative to the coronet of gold, although we must allow for the 
fiction in Layamon's work. 

The hills are also noticed in the " Vision of William, concern- 
ing Piers Plowman," a poem, supposed to have been written 
about the year 1352. 

In May 1844, 1 visited the place called Burstners Cross, where 
the coronet was found ; it is situated in an orchard, behind the 
house styled the Wind's Point, which lies on the turnpike-road 
by the Herefordshire Beacon. The tenant informed me that the 
old cottage, said to have been occupied by Tayler, the finder of 
the coronet, was taken down about thirty years ago, and that the 
site of it, and the garden, were added to the orchard. 

In the parish of Colwall, there is a small spring of w r ater, 
situated on the western side of the Herefordshire Beacon Hill, 
called Coldwell; but I am inclined to the opinion, that the 
name of that extensive parish is derived from Collis Vallum, or 
Collis Vallatus, a fortified hill. 

There are many names with the prefix, " Wall :" thus, there 
are, in Herefordshire, Wallhills, and Wallhills Camp, near 
Ledbury ; Wallsfield and Wallsfield Orles, in Cradley ; Wall- 
hills, and Wallhill Camp, in Thornbury; and Wallhill, in 
Orleton. In Worcestershire, there are Walldridge and Walls- 
hill, in Suckley; Wallshill, in Alfrick; Wallhill, in Orleton, 
in Eastham ; the like in Belbroughton and Bromsgrove ; and 
Wallbatch, Wallcroft, and Upper Wallcroft, in Grimley. And in 



159 

Staffordshire, Wallcroft, Walls Meadow, and The Walls, in Over 
Arley. 

The names Coldwell and Collhill occur very frequently in 
Worcestershire. There are, or were in the Anglo-Saxon times, 
places called Coldwell, on the boundaries of Cotheridge* ; 
Collhill and Colford, on the boundaries of Sal warp f ; and Cald- 
well, on the boundaries of Whittington J. There now are places 
called Coldwell Hill, Coldwell Eough, Coldwell Coppice, and 
Coldwell Piece, in Abberley ; Coldwell Hill, in Mathon ; Colwell 
Piece, and In Colwell Piece, in Claines; First Coldwell and 
Second Coldwell, in Abbot's Lench ; Coldwell Leasow, in Warley 
Wigorn ; and Coldwell Manor, in the parish of Kidderminster. 
There are also Coldnap (or Knap), by Cracombe Hill ; Cold 
Comfort § Meadow, in St. Clement's parish, Worcester ; and Cold 
Harbourough (or Cold Harbour), in Hindlip||. 

There is a large block of limestone called Colwall Stone, 
situated by a cottage (formerly named the " Old Game Cock "), 
on the road-side at Colwall Green. Some have supposed that it 
was placed there in ancient times as a memorial of some event, or 
as evidence of some custom ; but, upon my visiting the spot in 
1846, I learned from a person in the neighbourhood, that his late 
father, Francis Shuter, and others, about seventy years ago, got 
it out of the limestone quarry, in a copse at the foot of the 
Wytch, and, assisted by a strong team of oxen, dragged it to its 
present locality ; but whether it was brought there in lieu of a 
more ancient memorial I could not learn. It is four feet long, 
three feet broad, and two feet six inches thick ; and I was 
informed that the landlord receives one penny a year rent for it. 

The most remarkable discovery which has yet occurred in 
proof of the Roman occupation of the Herefordshire Beacon Camp, 

* See Heming's " Cartulary," p. 350 ; and Nash, Vol. ii., App., p. 48. 

+ See ibid p. 353 ; and ibid. . . .p. 50. 

I See ibid p. 359 ; and ibid. . . .p. 55. 

§ In Mr. Halliwell's " Glossary of Archaic Words," Cold Comfort is given, 
as meaning bad news. 

|| Also Coldridge, in Upper Alley, Co. Stafford ; and Colwood, at Combe- 
bank, in Dorsetshire. 



160 

was made in the year 1847, as will appear by the following 
account, which I submitted to the Archaeological Institute 
in September of that year, and which was inserted in their 
Journal* : — " A few weeks since a discovery of Eoman coins was 
made in Little Malvern parish, on the western side of the road 
leading to Ledbury, and opposite to the premises called Little 
Malvern Grove, within half a mile of the foot of the Herefordshire 
Beacon Hill. A party of visitors were rambling over the hills, 
and one of them struck his iron-pointed mountain staff into the 
turf, just upon the margin of a stone quarry, at the spot de- 
scribed, causing the turf and stones, with an urn containing 
about three hundred Eoman brass coins, to fall amongst the 
rubbish beneath, from which they were picked out by various 
persons, and are now in the possession of Colonel Colston, Henry 
Trant, Esq., and in numerous other hands. All those which I 
have seen are of Dioclesian, Maximian, or Constantius, and they 
are in very perfect condition. The urn, judging by the fragments 
which I have seen, had become much decayed, and nearly pul- 
verized. I believe this is the first evidence of Roman occupation 
of the Herefordshire Beacon Camp. Some writers have supposed 
it Roman on account of the central prsetorium ; but it appears 
more probable that it was originally British, and afterwards 
occupied by the Romans, and adapted to suit their own purposes. 
One of the coins is a large brass of Maximian. Obv. — Laureated 
head, MAXIMIANVS NOBILIS C. Rev.— A genius, naked, 
holding the cornucopia and discus. Genio Populi Romani, 
S. F." 

An account of this discovery was given by Mr. Vaux of the 
British Museum, and was read before the Numismatic Society 
January 27, 1848 f. The following is an extract from their 
Journal : — 

" On Monday the 15th of August, 1847, as Mr. Commissioner 
Mayne and his sons were out on a walk, they were induced to go 
in search of some geological remains, into a small quarry, on the 

* Vol. iv., pp. 356, 357. 

+ Particulars were also given in the " Gentleman's Magazine," May 184S, 
p. 526. 



161 

side of the road leading from Little Malvern to Ledbury. While 
turning over stones, Mr. Cox Mayne came unexpectedly upon a 
considerable number of second brass Koman coins, which were 
lying, as appeared to him, loosely thrown together a few inches 
under the surface at the top of the hill itself. 

" He immediately collected as many as he could lay hands on, 
amounting to about two hundred. 

" The news of this discovery rapidly spread in all directions, 
and people flocked from the village to the spot, and were rewarded 
by obtaining a few more specimens (probably the same as Mr. 
Mayne had previously exhumed) before nightfall. 

" The following morning, a man of the name of Fletcher came 
across from the parish of Colwall, on the Herefordshire side of 
the hills, and, on searching more closely, and turning over the 
soil, discovered another collection of similar coins, enclosed in a 
light red-coloured earthen pot, of undoubted Roman fabric, which 
he sold shortly afterwards, together with the coins, fifty in 
number, to Mr. Warden, one of the Directors of the East India 
Company. Some portions of the pot, which has been much 
shattered, I imagine, in the process of extraction, have been pre- 
served, and are to-night, by the kindness of Mr. Warden, exhi- 
bited to the Society. It will be observed, that there still adheres 
to the sides of the pot, some of the verdigris which covered the 
coins when found in it. It may be presumed, therefore, that the 
whole number of coins thus discovered, did not fall far short of 
three hundred ; for, besides those I have enumerated, which have 
been placed in my hands for the purpose of description, I saw 
some twenty or thirty in the hands of the gentlemen and cottagers 
in the neighbourhood ; and the post-master of the village informed 
me that for some days after the discovery, coins were continually 
passing in letters through the post-office. I found, on going 
down to Malvern, that it was very difficult to obtain a clear and 
satisfactory account of the order in which the discoveries took 
place, as almost every one to whom I addressed myself, had a 
different story to relate. I believe, however, that, on the whole, 
the above is as correct a version as it is possible to procure ; 
while the appearance itself of the coins, goes far to confirm the 



162 

truth of the narration. It will be observed, for instance, that 
those which were first turned up, and which I saw myself at 
Malvern, were covered with soft green cerugo, which peeled off 
immediately on being touched by the point of a penknife ; the 
result, probably, of exposure for a long period in the open ground, 
but at the same time in a dry pebbly soil : while those, on the 
other hand, which were found in the pot, had, to a great degree, 
resisted the effect of the weather, and retained the metallic lustre 
and brightness of the tinning, which most, if not all of them, had 
originally undergone. 

" Of these coins I have been able personally to examine about 
two hundred ; and I will now lay before the Society the results of 
that examination, at the same time exhibiting some specimens 
from the hoard, including those first discovered by Mr. Cox 
Mayne, and those subsequently placed at my disposal by Mr. 
Warden, with this remark, that so far as I know, no coins have 
been found except of the five emperors, Diocletianus, Maximianus 
Hercules, Constantius Chlorus, Galerius Maximianus, and Maxi- 
minus Daza, and that they fall therefore within the period 
between a.d. 286-311. They all are of the size called second 
brass, and in excellent preservation ; and the larger part of them 
so sharp and well defined, that they could hardly ever have been 
in circulation." 

Mr. Vaux then gives a very minute description of the coins, 
and some general remarks relative to the Herefordshire Beacon 
Camp, concluding as follows : — 

" The district in which these coins were discovered was, up to 
the time of Constantine the Great, included in the province west 
of the Severn, called Bkitannia Secunda, and was probably 
under the military government of the 2** Legio Augusta, whose 
usual head quarters were at Caerleon on the Usk. There is, 
however, no additional evidence of this fact, from the coins 
themselves. 

" The period of history over which they extend is one of 
peculiar interest, as well to the student of Roman history as to an 
Englishman. Then, for the first and indeed the only time, Rome 
saw her empire administered by six emperors, in pretended, if 



163 

not real, harmony ; and England, under the rule of the gallant 
rebel Carausius, for seven years successfully withstood the whole 
power of Eome, and made her first essay at dominion upon that 
element, which has since become peculiarly her own. 

" The comparative numbers of the coins discovered attest the 
presence of the legions of Constantius, so long the governor of 
the island, and who closed his victorious career at York, a.d. 306 ; 
while the large number of those of Diocletianus and Maximianus 
Hercules, who were associated with him in the empire, demon- 
strate the length of their united reigns, compared with the short 
duration of that of Maximinus Daza." 

MIDSUMMER HILL CAMP. 

About a mile and a half southward of the Herefordshire Beacon 
Camp, there is another remarkable camp on Midsummer Hill. 
This camp I visited in July, 1842, and found it very perfect. It 
has a single vallum all round the crown of the hill, and an agger 
on the lower side of the vallum. In fact, it has a kind of double 
vallum and double agger; the ground above the upper side of 
the main vallum having probably been scooped out to raise a kind 
of agger on that side of the vallum. This camp is in shape like 
a high-quartered shoe, and at one part, on the north side (at the 
instep of the shoe) it runs down one steep part of the hill, and up 
another part, and terminates southward at the toe of the shoe, 
which overlooks the deep pass, dividing Midsummer Hill from 
Ragged-stone Hill. The heel of the shoe overlooks the deep 
ravine called the Gullett, between the north side of Midsummer 
Hill and Warren Hill. This extensive camp has not been noticed 
as it deserves. 

THE RIDGE WAY. 

Between the Herefordshire Beacon and Eastnor there is an 
ancient road called the Ridge Way, which runs along the top of a 
fine hog's-back range of limestone. It is very remarkable that, 
on the western side of this most probably ancient British road-, 

* See the account of the Rycknield Street, 






164 

and about midway from the Herefordshire Beacon Camp on the 
north-east, and the Midsummer Hill Camp on the south-east, 
and within two miles of these camps, there is an oak, about 
seventy or eighty years old, upon the upper branches of which 
are several fine mistletoe bushes growing, This is the first and 
only time I have seen it growing upon an oak. Mr. Lees, who 
accompanied me, and pointed out this interesting memento of 
Druidism, has noticed it in " The Botanical Looker Out 5 !'." It 
certainly is remarkable that this rare instance of the mistletoe 
growing upon an oak, should occur on " the Ridge Way," the 
name of which indicates that it was an ancient British roadf; 
and it carries us back in imagination, to the time when the 
Druids marched forth in solemn array from their altar and seat 
of judgment at the Herefordshire Beacon Camp, to cut the sacred 
mistletoe from the oaks in the neighbourhood. 

It is supposed that the ancient Britons sometimes deposited 
branches of mistletoe in their tombs. In a pamphlet, containing 
a description of a coffin found in a tumulus which was opened at 
Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, in 1834, the writer, Mr. William- 
son, says, — " A quantity of a vegetable substance, which was first 
believed to be dried rushes, was also found in the coffin ; some of 
it has since been macerated, and though the greater portion of it 
is so much decomposed that nothing but the fibre remains, in one 
or two instances we have been so far successful as to clearly dis- 
tinguish a long lanceolate leaf, resembling that of the mistletoe, 
which plant it has probably been: a few dried berries were 
amongst the vegetable mass ; they were very tender and most of 
them soon crumbled to dust ; — they are about the size of those of 
the mistletoe." 

This coffin, which is now in the Scarborough Museum, was 
made out of the trunk of an oak tree, and contained a very per- 
fect skeleton of a supposed Brigantian chief, and also various 
spear-heads, &c. 

* First Edition, p. 18; Second Edition, pp. 51-55. 

t See further particulars in the account of the Bycknield Street, or Ridge Way. 



165 



THE WORCESTERSHIRE BEACON. 

A very interesting discovery was lately made on the top of 
this Beacon, the following particulars of which appeared in the 
" Journal of the Archaeological Institute*." 

" Mr. Jabez Allies reported an interesting discovery, supplying 
an example of diminutive British fictilia, hitherto almost exclu- 
sively noticed in Wiltshire tumuli. He communicated also a 
detailed account, with drawings supplied by Mr. Edwin Lees, 
of Worcester, in whose possession the urn is now preserved. In 
November 1849, Mr. Lees visited the Worcestershire Beacon, 
on the range of heights immediately above Great Malvern, and 
met with some of the party engaged upon the new trigono- 
metrical survey, who showed him part of a human cranium, 
found three days previously, in excavating on the summit of 
the Beacon to find the mark left as a datum during the former 
survey. On uncovering the rock, about nine inches below the 
surface, just on the outer edge, towards the south of the pile 
of loose stones, the small urn (two views of which are here 




represented, of half the size of the original) was found in a 
cavity of the rock, with some bones and ashes. The urn was 



Vol. vii. pp. 67, 68. 



166 

placed in an inverted position, covering part of the ashes, and the 
half-burnt bones lay near and around it. Its height is two and 
a half inches ; breadth at top, three inches- The bottom of this 
little vessel is nearly three quarters of an inch in thickness. The 
impressed markings are very deficient in regularity. Another 
deposit of bones, but without an urn, was also found on the north 
side of the heap of stones marking the summit ; and this heap, 
although renewed in recent times as a kind of beacon, very pro- 
bably occupies the site of an ancient cairn. 

" The discovery was made by Private Harkin, of the Royal 
Ordnance Corps, who gave the fragments of the urn to Mr. Lees. 
On further examination of the spot, some bones were collected ; 
and, being subjected to anatomical examination, they were pro- 
nounced to be the remains of an adult human subject, which had 
undergone cremation. The urn is of simple form, somewhat 
different in character to any found in Wilts ; it bears a zig-zag 
corded line both externally and within the lip, impressed upon 
the surface, as shown in the representation. 

" No discovery of any British urns, or interments, upon the 
Malvern Hills had, as Mr. Allies observed, been previously made. 
The conspicuous position of the site where this deposit was 
found, being the highest point of the range in the part adjoining 
Great Malvern, seems to indicate that it was the resting-place 
of some chieftain or person of note at an early period of our 
history." 

At the foot of the east side of the Worcestershire Beacon, 
there is a piece of ground called Twinbarrow*, situated at 
Barnard's Green, near the Moat Farm. 

Dr. Nashf says : — " In the Link, in the parish of Malvern, 
was lately found, many feet under ground, a celt, weighing ten 
ounces, about five inches and a half long, of a mixed metal 
between brass and copper, with a small ring or loop, as here 



* Two barrows, adjoining each other, are called Twinbarrow. (See Sir R. C. 
Hoare's " History of Wiltshire".) — Twinberrow is a personal name in Wor- 
cestershire. 

+ " History," Vol. ii., p. 139. 



167 



engraved ; it has a beautiful patina upon it." (See the woodcut 
here given.) 




A similar celt is represented in " Camden," Vol. i., p. 206. 
Montfaucon, in Vol. iii., Part 2, p. 339, has given a drawing 
of a Greek or Roman hatchet, very like the above. 

A Roman coin, said to be a Vespasian, was found a few years 
back on the east side of the Worcestershire Beacon, near St. 
Ann's Well, in a cavity which had been made by the sheep ; and 
a large Roman coin was a few years ago presented to the Wor- 
cestershire Museum, which was found by a gravel-digger near the 
road at the north end of the hill, three or four feet deep in the 
detrital matter, which had in the course of time rolled down 
the hill. On the obverse there is a portrait, without the iron 
crown; the inscription is gone. The reverse contains a fine 
figure of a horse at full speed, with a warrior upon it, apparently 
in the act of striking with his spear. 

There are pieces of land below Great Malvern called Upper 
Radnor Meadow and Lower Radnor Pasture. " Rad," in Anglo- 
Saxon, means " council;" and it seems probable that judicial 
and other meetings were held there* . 

There is a curious account relative to the Legend of St. 
Werstan (who appears to have been a hermit who founded an 
oratory in Great Malvern), detailed by Albert Way, Esq., in the 
"Journal of the Archaeological Institute," in 1845 f ; illus- 
trated by several woodcuts, from the painted glass in Great 
Malvern Church, depicting the legend. By the kind permission 
of the Institute, I am enabled to lay the following copy before 

my readers. 

* See Iter xiii. f Vol. ii., pp. 48-65. 



168 



THE LEGEND OF SAINT WERSTAN, 

AND THE FIRST CHRISTIAN ESTABLISHMENT AT GREAT MALVERN. 

" On the northern side of the choir of the ancient priory church 
of Great Malvern, in Worcestershire, three large windows, which 
compose the clerestory, still exhibit, in the original arrangement, 
a very interesting series of subjects taken from sacred as well as 
legendary history. These windows consist of four lights, which 
are divided into two almost equal stories by a transom ; and the 
painted glass, with which they are still in great part rilled, 
appears never to have been re-leaded or disturbed, although in 
its present fractured and decaying condition, it greatly needs 
some judicious measures which might preserve it from further 
injuries. The window which is nearest to the northern transept, 
and most remote from the eastern end of the church, presents a 
very curious series of subjects, and of some of these it is pro- 
posed to offer to our readers a detailed description. They 
illustrate the origin of a Christian establishment in the wild 
woodland district, which, at an early period, contributed to 
render the hill country of Worcestershire an almost impenetrable 
fastness, and boundary towards the marches of Wales. It was 
by a very small beginning that Christianity found an entrance 
into this savage country ; but the primitive introduction of 
Christian worship, to which it will be my endeavour to draw the 
attention of our readers, ultimately led the way to the foundation 
of an extensive religious establishment, the Benedictine monas- 
tery, which, although considered as a cell to Westminster, 
occupied in this country a very important position. An in- 
teresting evidence of the beneficial tendency of a monastic 
institution, situated, as was the priory of Great Malvern, in a 
remote and inaccessible district, is afforded by the letter of re- 
monstrance, addressed by the pious Latimer, then bishop of 
Worcester, entreating that an exception might be made in its 
favour, at the time of the general dissolution of religious houses*. 

* " Cott. MS., Cleop., E. iv., f. 264: printed in new edit., Monast. Ang., 
iii., 450." 



169 

" The documentary evidences, chartularies, and records, which 
might have thrown light on the early history of Great Malvern, 
have either been destroyed, or yet remain stored away in con- 
cealment, amongst the unexamined muniments of some ancient 
family. Some fortunate research may hereafter bring to light 
these ancient memorials ; at the present time little is known 
even of its later history, and the legend of the circumstances 
under which, in Anglo-Saxon times, the first Christian establish- 
ment was here made, is recorded only on the shattered and 
perishable glass, which has escaped from the successive injuries 
of four centuries. The priory church of Great Malvern was 
erected by the hermit Aldwin, according to Leland's statement, 
about the year 1084; the Annals of Worcester give the year 
1085 as the date of the foundation. Some portions of the 
original fabric still exist ; the short massive piers of the nave, 
and a few details of early Norman character, are, doubtless, to 
be attributed to that period. It appears by the Confirmation 
Charter of Henry I., dated 1127, that the monks of Great 
Malvern then held, by grant from Edward the Confessor, certain 
possessions which had been augmented by the Conqueror; but 
there is no evidence that, previously to the Conquest, any regular 
monastic institution had been there established. The evidence 
which was given by the prior, in the year 1319, may be received 
as grounded not merely on tradition, but on some authentic 
record preserved amongst the muniments of the house. He 
declared that the priory had been, for some time previously to 
the Conquest, ' quoddam heremitorium,' a certain resort of 
recluses, founded by Urso D'Abitot, with whose concurrence it 
subsequently became a monastic establishment, formed and en- 
dowed by the abbot of Westminster-. It is not, however, my 
present intention to enter into the subject of the foundation or 
endowment of the priory, but to call attention to the singular 
and forgotten legend of the hermit saint, who first sought to 
establish Christian worship in the impenetrable forest district of 
this part of Worcestershire. 

" Several writers have described, in greater or less detail, the 
* " Plac. coram Eege apud Ebor., term Mic. 12 Echv. II., Monast. Augl." 



170 

remarkable painted glass, of which a considerable portion still 
remains in the windows of Great Malvern church ; of few 
churches, indeed, have such minutely detailed accounts been 
preserved, noted down long since, at a time when the decorations 
had sustained little injury. The full descriptions, which were 
taken by Habingdon, are for the most part accurate and satis- 
factory, and afford a valuable source of information ; a mere 
wreck now remains of much which attracted his attention, and 
has been preserved from utter oblivion in the notes compiled by 
him during the reign of Charles I*. It is however very singular 
that he wholly overlooked, as it would appear, the remarkable 
commemorative window, to which the present notice relates; 
and Thomas, Nash, and other subsequent writers, have contented 
themselves with giving a transcript or abstract of Habingdon 's 
notes, without any comparison with the original painted glass 
still existing. They have in consequence neglected the most 
curious portion of the whole, and it will now be my endeavour 
to set before our readers this feature of the ancient decorations 
of this interesting church, as a singular example of the com- 
memorative intention of such decorations, and, in default of 
direct historical or documentary evidences, an addition to the 
information which we possess, respecting the progressive establish- 
ment of Christian worship in our island, in early times. 

" Leland, who appears to have visited Great Malvern, in the 
course of the tour of investigation pursued by him during six 
years, and who had the opportunity of consulting the muniments, 

* " Thomas Habingdon or Habington, of Hindlip, Worcestershire, was 
condemned to die for concealing some of the agents concerned in the gun- 
powder plot. He was pardoned on condition that he should never quit the 
county, to the history and antiquities of which he subsequently devoted his 
time. There existed formerly a MS. of these collections in Jesus College 
library, Oxford. In the library of the Society of Antiquaries there is a 
transcript made by Dr. Hopkins, in the reign of Queen Anne, with additions 
by Dr. Thomas. The notes on the Malvern windows have been printed in 
the ' Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Worcester, and Malvern Priory,' 
8vo., 1728 ; Nash's ' History of Worcestershire,' ii., 129 ; and in the new 
edition of the ' Monasticon.' Dr. Thomas gave a Latin version in his ' An- 
tiquities of Malvern Priory.' " 



171 

to which the commission of inquiry, granted to him under the 
Great Seal, in the year 1533, afforded him freedom of access, 
has noted down that nigh to the priory stood the chapel of St. 
John the Baptist, where St. Werstan suffered martyrdom*. He 
had, perhaps, examined the singular subjects in the northern 
window of the choir, a memorial replete with interest to a person 
zealously engaged on such a mission of historical inquiry, and 
had listened in the refectory to the oral tradition of the legendary 
history to which these representations relate, or perused the 
relation which was then preserved in the muniment chamber of 
the priory. Leland is the only writer who names the martyr 
St. Werstan, or makes any allusion to the connection which 
appears to exist between his history and the foundation of the 
religious establishment at Great Malvern. It is, however, 
certain, from the place assigned to the four subjects illustrative 
of the incidents of his life, in the window destined to com- 
memorate the principal facts of that foundation, that in the 
fifteenth century, when this painted glass was designed, the 
monks of Great Malvern accounted the ' certain hermitage,' ac- 
cording to the statement of the prior, in the year 1319, as above 
related, to have been the germ of that important and flourishing 
establishment, which at a later time had taken a prominent place 
amongst the religious institutions situated on the western shore 
of the Severn. 

" The remarkable painted glass, to which I would call atten- 
tion, is to be found in the upper division or story of the cle- 
restory window, nearest to the Jesus chapel, or northern transept. 
In the elevated position occupied by these representations, they 
appear scarcely to have attracted notice, the figures being mostly 
of small dimension ; and to these circumstances it is perhaps to 
be attributed that Habingdon and the writers of later times have 
wholly neglected so singular a series. The painted glass, which 
is preserved in the choir of this church, appears to have been 
executed towards the year 1460 ; some changes have, in recent 
times, been made, and the windows on the southern side have 
been filled with portions collected from the clerestory of the 
* " Leland, Coll. de rebus Britann., i., f. 62." 



172 

nave, which was of somewhat later date than the choir. The 
construction of the church, as augmented and renovated in the 
Perpendicular style, appears to have commenced towards the 
middle of the fifteenth century ; and it is to prior John Malverne, 
who is first named in the register of Bishop Bourchier, in 1435, 
that the commencement of this new work may be attributed. 
Habingdon has recorded that in the window of the clerestory of 
the choir, on the northern side, nearest to the east end, the 
kneeling figure of that prior was to be seen, with an inscription 
commemorative of his benefaction. It no longer remains, as 
described by Habingdon, but it is possible that the fragment 
which may still be noticed in the lower part of that window, 
being the head and upper part of a figure of a Benedictine monk, 
may be the portraiture of prior Malverne, the founder of the 
new choir : and it may readily be distinguished by the inscribed 
scroll over the head, <& Ulix anna pro me at) acp'm ex ora. 
The following inscription formerly recorded his benefaction, 
©rate pro anima 3}oJjannig Jftalfcertte, qui tgtam tenegtram 
fieri fecit, and although it is not certain that such requests for 
prayers on behalf of the soul of the benefactor were not, in 
some instances, thus inscribed during his life-time, some persons 
will probably take the pious phrase as an evidence that the 
window was not completed until after the decease of the prior, 
which occurred about the year 1449. But some further circum- 
stances, in regard to the painted glass which is preserved in the 
windows of the choir, will be hereafter noticed, in the endeavour 
to ascertain its date ; I will now proceed to describe the four 
subjects which comprise the legendary history, as I am led to 
suppose, of St. Werstan, exhibited in the upper story of the 
window nearest to the northern transept. In the first pane is to 
be observed a representation apparently composed of two pictures, 
forming one subject; in the upper part are seen four angels, 
with golden- coloured wings, vested in amices and albs, the 
apparels of the former being conspicuous, and presenting the 
appearance of a standing collar. Each of these angels has the 
right hand elevated in the Latin gesture of benediction ; and 
they rest their left hands on the boundary stones placed at 



173 




St. Wer stan's Vision. 



174 

the four angles of a square verdant plot, which appears in 
that manner to be set out and denned, being a more green and 
flowery spot than the adjacent ground, which seems to represent 
a part of the Malvern hills. In the centre of this piece of 
ground, thus marked out by the angels, appears a large white 
key. In the lower division of the same pane appears a figure 
kneeling, and looking towards heaven ; a hill, formed of several 
banks or terraces one above another, appears as the back- 
ground, and over his head is a scroll thus inscribed, jfeanctug 
22forgtanu0 i&arttr. He is not clad in the Benedictine habit, 
like other figures in the adjoining windows, but in the russet 
coloured cappa, or full sleeveless mantle, with a round caputium, 
or mozzetta, to which is attached a hood. Under the mantle 
may be distinguished the scapulary : the head is bare, and 
the hands are raised in adoration. There can, I think, be 
little question, that this first subject was intended to represent a 
celestial vision which indicated to the hermit, who had fled from 
troubles or temptations to the wilds of the Malvern hills, the 
spot where he should construct an oratory, which would ulti- 
mately lead to the foundation of an important Christian insti- 
tution in those dreary wastes. The import of the silver key at 
present remains unknown, for the legend of St. Werstan is lost, 
and even his name has not been handed down in any calendar of 
British Saints, but the signification of this interesting repre- 
sentation can scarcely be mistaken ; the heavenly guidance, 
which fixed the wanderings of the pious recluse in the woodland 
waste of this hill country of Worcestershire, and pointed out the 
site of the primitive Christian foundation in that district, appears 
undeniably to be here set forth and commemorated. 

" In the next pane may be noticed a similar twofold dispo- 
sition of the subject represented. In the lower part appears the 
same hermit, clad in russet as before, the epithet iWarttr being, 
perhaps accidentally, omitted in the inscription. In the superior 
division are again seen the four angels vested in like manner 
in albs, which have apparels on the sleeves, over the wrists ; and 
these celestial messengers are engaged in the dedication of the 
oratory, which, as it may be supposed, had been raised by 



175 




ELA M OT Tt'.VH £ ftV I S I D£ . 5. 



Dedication of the Chapel built by St. Werstan. 



176 

St. Werstan on the spot miraculously pointed out to him in 
the vision. The angels elevate their right hands as before, 
in benediction ; one bears a processional cross ; another, who 
approaches the closed entrance of the chapel, bears the thurible, 
and seems prepared to knock against the door, and cry aloud, 
according to the impressive ancient ritual of the Latin church, 
' Lift up your heads, ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye 
everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in !' A third 
angel bears the cross-staff, and raises the aspergillum, or hyssop, 
as if about to sprinkle with holy water the newly completed 
edifice ; whilst the fourth touches the bell, which is suspended 
in an open turret, surmounted by a spire and finial cross. The 
roof of the chapel is coloured blue, as if to represent a covering 
formed of lead. In this pane we must at once recognise the 
representation of a miraculous dedication of the chapel, which 
had been built by the hermit Saint in obedience to a vision from 
above, and was now consecrated by the same ministering spirits 
who had been sent forth to direct him to undertake its con- 
struction. It is interesting to compare this subject with the 
curious drawing, preserved at Cambridge, which may be seen 
in a series of representations illustrative of the life of Edward 
the Confessor ; amongst these occurs the miraculous dedication 
of the church of St. Peter, at Westminster, by the arch-apostle 
in person, according to the legendary history ; St. Peter is there 
seen accompanied by angels, who perform the services of the 
attendant acolytes, in singular and close conformity with the 
curious representation at Great Malvern, above described. The 
drawings in question exist in a MS. in the library at Trinity 
College, and appear to have been executed towards the com- 
mencement of the fifteenth century. 

" In the third compartment of the window the eye is at once 
struck by the stately aspect of a regal personage, a figure of 
larger dimension as compared with those which have been de- 
scribed : he appears vested in a richly embroidered robe lined 
with ermine, a cape of the same, and the usual insignia of 
royalty. In his right hand he holds a charter, to which is 
appended the great seal, bearing the impression of a cross on 



177 




XUAMOTT Si HEAVI570f.Sc 



The Grant of Edward the Confessor. 



178 

red wax, and apparently is about to bestow a grant upon a person 
who kneels at his feet. The king is at once recognised by the 
inscribed scroll, j&c'g <!Ft>foattiuS ttx ; the figure of the suppliant, 
to whom the charter is accorded, is represented as of much 
smaller proportion than that of the sovereign, in accordance with 
a conventional principle of design in old times, by which persons 
of inferior station were often represented as of diminutive size, 
in comparison with their more powerful neighbours. Over the 
head of this smaller figure is a scroll, which bears the following 
inscription, WLiW m* : (Sftfoartmg : It does not appear, in the 
absence of all legendary or historical evidence, who was the 
person thus designated, upon whom a grant was conferred by the 
Confessor, and who here appears as connected with the history 
of St. Werstan. He is clad in a sleeved robe and hooded cape, 
the former being blue, and the cape bordered with white : it is 
not properly the monastic habit, and it differs from that in which 
St. Werstan appears, as before described. It may be conjectured 
that the hermit, disturbed in his peaceful resting-place upon the 
Malvern heights by some oppressive lord of the neighbouring 
territory, had sent a messenger to intercede with St. Edward, 
and obtained by royal charter lawful possession of the little plot 
whereon the celestial vision had led him to fix his oratory. 
Certain it is, as recorded in the charter of Henry I., dated 1127, 
that amongst the possessions of Great Malvern were numbered 
lands* granted by the Confessor, although no regular monastic 
establishment appears to have existed previously to the Conquest. 
It seems therefore reasonable to conclude from the introduction 
of the subject now under consideration, in connection with the 
circumstances of the legend of that saint, that, according to 
received tradition, the period when St. Werstan first resorted to 
this wild spot, and established himself on the locality marked out 
by a heavenly vision, was during the times of the Confessor. 
" The fourth, and last subject of the series, which appears in 

* " ' Una virgata terre in Baldeh, de feudo de Hanley, quam Rex Edwardus 
dedit.' Carta R. Henr. I. a.d. 1127. In another charter of Henry I., cited 
in Pat. f)0 Edw. III., per inspeximns, it is called 'Baldehala,' and in Plac. 12 
Edw. II., ' Badenhale.' " 



179 




.WRY. id CELAMOTTE&HEAVISII>E.Si 

The Martyrdom of St. Werstan. 



180 

the upper division of this remarkable window, appears to re- 
present the martyrdom of St. Werstan the hermit, and the 
chapel or oratory, which was the scene of that event, described 
by Leland as situated near to the Priory. On the steep side of 
the Malvern heights are represented, in this pane, two small 
buildings, apparently chapels : the upper one may, doubtless, be 
regarded as the same miraculously dedicated building, which 
appears in the second pane ; from its roof springs the bell-turret 
and spire, but precise conformity in minor details has not been 
observed in these two representations. At one of the windows 
of the oratory is here to be seen the Saint, who puts forth his 
head, bleeding and bruised, whilst on either side stands a cruel 
murderer, prepared with sword upraised to strike the unoffending 
recluse. These miscreants are clad in gowns which are girt 
round their waists, and reach somewhat below their knees ; the 
scabbards of their swords are appended to their girdles, and on 
their heads are coifs, or caps, similar in form to the military 
salade, but they do not appear to be armour, properly so called. 
These may possibly, however, represent the palets, or leathern 
head-pieces, which were worn about the time when this painted 
glass was designed, as a partial or occasional defence. Be this 
as it may, it deserves to be remarked that the short gown and 
coif-shaped head covering is a conventional fashion of costume, 
in which the tormentor and executioner are frequently repre- 
sented as clothed, in illuminations and other works of mediaeval 
art. An illustration of this remark is supplied by the curious 
embroidered frontal and super-frontal, preserved in the church of 
Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire, which were exhibited at the annual 
meeting of the Archaeological Association at Canterbury. The 
subjects portrayed thereon are the sufferings of Apostles and 
martyred Saints: the work appears to have been designed to- 
wards the early part of the fourteenth century ; and the tor- 
mentors are in most instances clad in the short gown and close- 
fitting coif. Beneath, not far from the chapel, wherein the 
martyr is seen, in the Malvern window, appears a second building, 
not very dissimilar to the first in form, but without any bell- 
turret and spire : possibly, indeed, so little were minute propriety 



181 

and conformity of representation observed, the intention may 
have been to exhibit the same building which is seen above, and 
a second occurrence which there had taken place. This oratory 
has three windows on the side which is presented to view, and at 
each appears within the building an acolyte, or singing-clerk, 
holding an open book, whilst on either side, externally, is seen 
a tormentor, clad in like manner as those who have been noticed 
in the scene above ; they are not, however, armed with swords, 
but hold bundles of rods, and seem prepared to castigate the 
choristers, and interrupt the peaceful performance of their pious 
functions. With this subject, the series which appears to repre- 
sent the history of the martyr St. Werstan, closes, and in the 
four compartments of the lower division of the window, divided 
by the intervening transom, are depicted events recorded and 
well known, in connection with the foundation of Great Malvern, 
namely, the grant and confirmation conceded by William the 
Conquerer to Aldwin, the founder ; the grant to him by St. 
Wolstan, bishop of Worcester; and the acts of donation by 
William, earl of Gloucester, Bernard, earl of Hereford, and 
Osbern Poncius; benefactions which materially contributed to 
the establishment of this religious house. Of these, curious as 
the representations are, I will not now offer any description ; the 
circumstances, to which they relate, are detailed in the documents 
which have been published by Dugdale, Thomas, and Nash. No 
allusion has hitherto been found in the legends of the saints of 
Britain, or the lists of those who suffered for the faith within its 
shores, to assist us in the explanation of the singular subjects 
which are now, for -the first time, described ; they appear to be 
the only evidences hitherto noticed, in relation to the history 
of St. Werstan, and the earliest Christian establishment on the 
savage hills of Worcestershire. In this point of view, even 
more than as specimens of decorative design, it is hoped that 
this notice may prove acceptable. 

" It is so material, wherever it may be feasible, to establish the 
precise age of any example either of architectural design, or 
artistic decoration, that a few observations will not here be mis- 
placed, in the endeavour to fix the dates, both of the fabric of the 



182 

later portions of Great Malvern priory church, and of the painted 
glass which still decorates its windows. The work of renovation 
or augmentation had commenced, as it has been stated, under 
Prior John Malverne, towards the year 1450 ; and it progressed 
slowly, as we find by various evidences. It has been affirmed 
that the great western window was bestowed by Richard III., 
whose armorial bearings were therein to be seen ; the nave ap- 
pears to have been completed during the times, and under the 
patronage of the liberal John Alcock, whilst he held the see of 
Worcester, from 1476 to 1486. But in regard to the eastern 
part of the building, it is to be noticed that the dates 1453 and 
1456 (36th Henry VI.), appear on tiles which formed the decora- 
tion not only of the pavement, but of some parts of the walls of 
the choir ; being here used in place of carved wainscot, an appli- 
cation of fictile decoration, of which no other similar example has 
hitherto been noticed. The period at which the work had been 
so far completed, that the dedication of the high Altar, and of 
six other altars, might be performed, which took place probably 
on the completion of the choir and transepts, is fixed by an 
authentic record, hitherto strangely overlooked by those who 
have written on the history and antiquities of Malvern, and now 
for the first time published. This document is to be found in 
the Registers of Bishop Carpenter, the predecessor of Bishop 
Alcock in the see of Worcester. They are preserved amongst 
the chapter muniments in the Edgar Tower, at Worcester. This 
evidence has possibly been overlooked on this account, that those 
who searched for documents in relation to the date of the later 
building, did not bear in mind that no consecration of the new 
structure would take place, the church having been only embel- 
lished or enlarged ; the only evidence therefore, to be sought in 
the episcopal archives, would be the record of the dedication of 
the altars, which is given in the Register as follows : — 

" Registram Carpenter, vol. i. f. 155. ' Consecracio altarium in prioratu 
majoris Malvernie. Penultimo die mensis Julii, Anno Domini millesimo 
cccc mo sexagesimo, Reverendus in Christo pater et dominus, dominus Johannes, 
permissione divina Wigorniensis Episcopus, erat receptns in monasterium 
sive prioratum majoris Malvernie per priorem et Conventum ejusdem, cum. 



183 

pulsacione campanarum, et ibidem pernoctavit, cum clericis, ministris, et 
servientibus suis, sumptibus domus. Et in crastino die sequente consecravit 
ibidem altaria, videlicet, primum et summum altare, in honore beate Marie 
virginis, Sancti Michaelis Arcbangeli, Sanctorum Johannis Evangeliste, Petri 
et Pauli Apostolorum, et Benedicti Abbatis. Aliud altare in choro, a dextris, 
in honore Sanctorum Wolstani et Thome Herfordensis. Aliud in choro, a 
sinistris, in honore Santorum Edwardi Eegis et Confessoris, et Egidii Abbatis. 
Quartum, in honore Petri et Pauli, et omnium Apostolorum, Sancte Katerine 
et omnium virginum. Quintum, in honore Sancti Laurencii, et omnium 
martirum, et Sancti Nicholai, et omnium confessorum. Sextum, in honore 
beate Marie virginis, et Sancte Anne, matris ejusdem. Et septimum, in 
honore Jesu Christi, Sancte Ursule, et undecim milia vhginum." 

" The period, therefore, at which the work had so far progressed 
that the services of the church might take place in the choir 
of the new fabric, was the year 1460. It is worthy of obser- 
vation, that in the great eastern window, a careful observer may 
discern, here and there, scattered as if irrespectively of any 
original design in the painted glass, several large white roses and 
radiant suns, which appear to be allusive to Edward IV. They 
seem to have been inserted in various places, after the window 
had been filled with painted glass, as they manifestly do not 
accord with the propriety of the design, which consists of 
subjects of New Testament history. The painted glass to 
which the present notice chiefly relates, namely, that which has 
been preserved in the northern clerestory windows of the choir, 
may be assigned to this same period, the later part of the reign 
of Henry VI., or commencement of that of Edward IV. There 
is a great predominance of white glass, according to a prevalent 
fashion of the time : the skies are richly diapered, the alternate 
panes, or compartments, being red and blue ; the figures are 
slightly shaded, but scarcely any colour, with the exception of 
yellow, is introduced. 

" It is not very easy to fix the positions of the seven altars, 
described in the record of their consecration. The high Altar, 
dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin, St. Michael the 
archangel, St, John the Evangelist, St. Peter, St. Paul, and 
St. Benedict, occupied the position wherein now is placed the 
altar-table. The two altars which are described as in the choir, 



184 

were, probably, one at the eastern extremity of the north aisle 
thereof, dedicated in honour of St. Edward the Confessor and 
St. Giles ; and the second on the other side, where is now a 
vestry ; this was dedicated in honour of St. Wolstan, and St. 
Thomas of Hereford. The fourth, dedicated in honour of St. 
Peter and St. Paul, may have been in one of the transepts, and 
the sixth, in honour of the Blessed Virgin and St. Anne, in the 
lady chapel, eastward, which is now totally destroyed, unless 
indeed that building was erected subsequently to the choir. The 
seventh, dedicated in honour of Jesus Christ, St. Ursula, and 
the eleven thousand virgins, was in the southern transept. It 
seems not improbable that some change in the appropriation of 
these altars might have been made at some latter period, for 
whilst the northern transept has been always traditionally called 
the Jesus chapel, the southern transept, long since wholly 
demolished, has been termed the chapel of St. Ursula. The 
tomb of Walcherus, the second prior, discovered in 1711, on the 
site of the cloisters, not far from the spot formerly occupied by 
the southern transept, is described as having been found about 
twelve feet from the chapel of St. Ursula*. 

" In the map of the chace and hills of Great Malvern, which 
was supplied by Joseph Dougharty, of Worcester, for the work 
compiled by William Thomas, and published in 1725, under the 
title, ' Antiquitates Prioratus majoris Malverne,' it is to be 
noticed, that above the Priory church, a little higher up the hill, 
towards the Worcestershire beacon, appears a little solitary build- 
ing, marked 'St. Michael's Chapel.' The position of the chapel, 
as it appears in this map, corresponds with the description which 
is found in Habingdon's notes on the windows of the church, as 
given by Thomas. In the lower part of the western window of 
the northern transept, or Jesus chapel, it is stated that there 
were to be seen the town and church of Malvern, and the chapel 
of St. Michael, situated on the side of the hill ; and in the 
southern corner an archer in the chace, about to let fly a shaft at 
a hindf. Not a trace of this interesting subject is now to be 

* " Nash, Hist, of Worcestershire, ii. 133." 

t " Antiqu. rrioratus majoris Malverne : descriptio ecclesiae, p. 21." 



185 

distinguished. It must be observed that, although the Priory 
church, according to the account commonly received, was dedi- 
cated in honour of the Blessed Virgin alone, it appears, from a 
passage in the Chronicle of G-ervase of Canterbury, that it was 
dedicated in honour of St. Michael also ; and Eichard, ' nlius 
Puncii,'in his grant of the church of Leche to Malvern, expresses, 
that the donation was made ' Deo, et Sancte Marie, et Sancto 
Michaeli Malvernie*.' The high Altar of the new fabric, accord- 
ing to the document given above, was also consecrated in honour 
of the Blessed Virgin, and St. Michael the archangel. These 
facts would lead to the supposition that the primitive oratory had 
been dedicated in honour of the Archangel, on account of the 
miraculous vision of Angels, who first directed St. Werstan to 
undertake the work, and by whose ministry it had been consecrated. 
Nor was the memory of the same celestial guidance lost, when 
a more stately fabric was erected near to St. Michael's chapel ; 
the trace of it is preserved in the dedication of Aid win's church 
to the Archangel, in the time of the Conqueror, as likewise in 
that of the high Altar, in 1460 ; and these facts seem to show 
that the monks of Great Malvern at all times, bore in mind, that 
the remote origin of that religious foundation was derived from 
the message of ministering spirits to the hermit Saint f . 

" A singular difficulty presents itself in this endeavour to 
bring together the few obscure details which relate to the legend 
of St. Werstan. Leland, and Leland alone, makes mention of 
the chapel of St. John the Baptist, nigh to the Priory, as the 
scene of his martyrdom. No other notice whatsoever has been 
found of any chapel thus dedicated. The ancient parish church, 
which stood near to the Priory, at the north-western angle of 
the present cemetery, was dedicated in honour of St. Thomas 
the Apostle, and no evidence has been adduced to show that 
any other chapel existed in the vicinity. May it be supposed 
that Leland wrote inaccurately in this instance, or that the 

* " Carta Ant. L.F.C. xviii. 11, in the British Museum." 
t " Ecton gives in 1754, 'Newland, St. Michael, Cap. to Malverne Magna. 
Wordsfield, Chapel to Malverne Magna, in ruins.' The former is the little 
church, on Newland Green, on the road from Malvern to Worcester." 



186 

chapel of St. Michael might have been dedicated also in honour 
of the Baptist, and occasionally designated by his name ? The 
decision must be left to the more successful researches of those 
who take an interest in the history of the locality ; it will suffice 
now to suggest, that the forgotten site of the hermit's primitive 
chapel may still perhaps be traced, situated not far above the 
Priory church. No tradition is connected with the spot ; few 
even bear in mind that not many seasons have passed since it 
was commonly termed The Hermitage. It is only twelve or 
fifteen years since, that a gentleman named Williams, on his 
return from Florence, selected and purchased this picturesque 
site ; he built thereon a dwelling, in the Italian fashion, and 
applied to it the name of the Grand Duke's Villa, II hello sguardo. 
The neighbours now commonly call it Bello Squardo, or some- 
times, I believe, Bellers' Garden, and certainly it was not there 
that the curious traveller, in search of the spot where Christian 
worship was first established on these hills, in Anglo-Saxon 
times, would have lingered on his ascent to St. Anne's well. 
The Hermitage, at the time when it so strangely lost its ancient 
name, appears to have been an old-fashioned building, little 
worthy of the. notice even of an antiquary : it had been fitted 
up as a dwelling-house, probably, soon after the dissolution of 
monasteries. An ancient vault, or crypt, of small dimensions, 
fragments of dressed ashlar, and a few trifling relics, have from 
time to time been found : several interments in rudely-formed 
cists, or graves lined with stones, were also discovered, which 
seem to show that the spot had been consecrated ground. Here, 
then, in default of tradition, or any more conclusive evidence, 
it may be credibly supposed that the simple oratory of St. 
Werstan had stood; here did he suffer martyrdom, and here 
was the memory of his example cherished by those whose 
labours tended to the establishment of Christian institutions in 
the wild forests of this remote district of our island." 

" Albeet Way." 

I must here add that Mr. Way kindly called my attention to 
the fact that, in Leland's " Itinerary," Vol. vi., fo. 79, there is 



187 

the following interesting passage relative to St. Werstan, which 
he was not aware of at the time he wrote the account of the 
legend : — " Bede maketh mention that, yn his tyme, there was a 
notable abbay at Derehurste *. It was destroyed by the Danes. 
Werstanus fledde thens, as it is sayde, to Malvern." Mr. Way 
also added that " It appears by an ancient inscription formerly 
existing at Deerhurst Priory, as stated by Leland, that Dodo, or 
Doddo, a Mercian duke, and one of the chief founders of Tewkes- 
bury Abbey, built a monastery at Deerhurst, in honour of the 
Blessed Virgin f . Dodo is said to have died in 725. The authority 
for this statement, which various writers and local topographers 
have concurred in adopting, was a MS. history of Tewkesbury 
x\bbey, from which Leland made extracts. There certainly were 
religious persons established at Deerhurst before 804, as appears 
by a charter printed in the ' Monasticon.' (Dugd. ' Monast.' 
Vol. i., new edition, p. 591, Append, to Worcester, Mon., No. 23.) 
The house was afterwards destroyed by the Danes, but rebuilt 
before 980, Elfege, Archbishop of Canterbury, having about that 
time been a monk there. (Leland ' Coll.' Tom. i., p. 1 9 ; Tom. ii., 
p. 249.) Edward the Confessor, according to Sir Robert Atkyns 
and Rudder, caused the monastery to be rebuilt and consecrated 
about 1056 j. That king certainly gave it to the Benedictine 
Abbey of St. Denis, in France, as appears by the confirmation 
charter of William the Conqueror, preserved in the Cartulary of 
that house, and printed in Dugdale's ' Monasticon' (new edition, 
Vol. iv., p. 665). From that time it became an alien priory, and 
a cell to St. Denis." 

From the above ■ statement it appears that, as the abbey was 
rebuilt by Edward the Confessor, it must have been burnt a 
second time by the Danes, an occurrence which most probably 
took place when the forces of Edmund Ironside and those of 
Cnut were, in the year 1016, drawn up at Deerhurst in battle 

* It is said to have been founded in 715. See " Codex. Dip.," Charters Nos. 
186, 824, 829, and 830, relative to Deorhyrst or Deerhurst. 

f " Dugdale, ' Mon. Angl.,' Vol. iv., new edit., p. 664." 

I " Atkyn's ' Hist, of Glouc.,' p. 385 ; Rudder, p. 403 ; also see Lysons' 
' Antiquities of Gloucestershire,' p. 18." 



188 

array for some time, without coming to any engagement; and 
which, after the supposed single combat between Edmund and 
Cnut, ended in the treaty of peace and division of the kingdom, 
agreed upon by them in the Isle of Aloey *, in the Severn, said to 
be near Gloucester. Now, taking the date of 1016, or thereabouts, 
as the time of St. Werstan's flight from Deerhurst to Malvern, 
and supposing that he was about thirty years of age, this would 
make him about fifty-six years old when the confessor came to the 
tin-one, which took place in 1042. 

It may be as well to remark that an opinion has been enter- 
tained that the isle, where the supposed combat took place, was 
situated opposite to Deerhurst instead of near to Gloucester. 
Sir Kobert Atkyns, in his " History of Gloucestershire," p. 388, 
says, " There is a small island in this parish [Deerhurst] anciently 
called Oleneayf, and by the Saxons Alney, and now the Neight J, 
whereon it was supposed that the single combat, between Edmund 
King of England, and Canutus King of the Danes, was fought, to 
decide the fate of the kingdom, which had been worried by bloody 
wars. It produced a peace by dividing the kingdom, for neither 
king obtained an entire victory over his enemy. But the place of 
combat may more justly be assigned to have been a meadow near 
the city of Gloucester, which at this day is called Alney Isle§." 

Now it appears rather incredible that the two kings should have 
gone as far as Gloucester to settle their dispute, while the armies 
lay at Deerhurst ; and it gives some countenance to the idea that 
the island, now called the Neight, was the place in question, un- 
less we suppose that the armies removed from Deerhurst to 
Gloucester during the settlement of the dispute. 

In the work formerly ascribed to Matthew Paris, it is stated 
that the single combat took place at Deerhurst, on a small island 
called Oseney, and that Edmund's army was on the west side of 

* Or Olney, see " Chron. Sax .," an. 1016. 

+ Or " Oleneag," see " Camden." 

J Or " Eight," ibid. The word is sometimes spelt Naight, Neyt, and Ait, 
see the account of the Ambrosiae Petrae. 

§ See also Gough's " Camden," Vol. i., p. 270, first edition, 1789, where it 
is said that the isle lies between Aversbridge and Maysemore. 



189 

the Severn and Canute's on the east*. Now, as Deerhurst lies 
on the east side of the river, the abhey, according to this account, 
must have been quite exposed to the ravages of the Danes. 

The site of some encaustic tile-works was found at Great 
Malvern, the particulars of which have been already given in the 
account of a similar discovery at Droitwich. 

There is in the " Archasologiaf" an interesting description, by 
Edward Blore, Esq., of the refectory of the Priory of Great 
Malvern, with engravings of it as it appeared in 1837, being only 
two years before it was taken down. Mr. Blore considers it to 
have belonged to the early part of the reign of Edward III. 

BEAR'S WOOD. 

There is a remarkable conical hill in Cradley J, Herefordshire, 
near the western side of Old Storage, Alfrick, Worcestershire, 
called Bear's Wood, which is partly a wood and partly a common. 
An idea has been entertained that, in some cases where the term 
bear occurs in the names of places, it is to be considered a cor- 
ruption of the name Bard, and that such places were frequented 
by the ancient British bards. In Mrs. Bray's work, entitled the 
" Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy§, the authoress speaks of 
a tract of land on Dartmoor, called Baird-down (yulgo Bair-down), 
and suggests that it means the hill of the Bards. Others have 
conjectured that the last British bear was killed there, and the 
place designated accordingly ; be that as it may, it is more than 
probable that we are indebted to the bears rather than to the 
bards, for the name of the hill in Cradley, for in the first place, 
the name at present, at least, is Bear, like the names of some 
other places mentioned below ; and, in the next place, the hill 
lies in a very romantic and woody region where such animals 
would naturally frequent. 

* See Giles's edition of " Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History," pub- 
lished in 1849, Vol. i, pp. 290, 291. 
+ Vol. xxx., Part 2, p. 514. 
J See Cradley. 
§ Vol. i., pp. 57, 69, 72. 



190 

It is stated in the " Zoologist," No. 1, p. 8, in a notice of 
Bell's " History of British Quadrupeds," that, " in the days of 
Plutarch, bears were exported from Britain for the amusement of 
of the Komans." 

There is a piece of land called Bear-croft in Suckley, a parish 
adjoining Cradley; Big Bear Hill, Little Bear Hill, and Upper 
and Lower Bear's Leasow in Tardebig ; Bearcrofts, or Astridge 
or Ashridge Hill, in Powick ; Bearlands Wood, Bearsland, and 
Upper and Lower Bearsland, in Warley Wigorn; Bearcroft 
Meadow, in Garlesford Court Farm, Great Malvern ; and Bear- 
croft, in the chapelry of St. Andrew, Pershore, all in Worcester- 
shire-. There is, likewise, Bearwood Common, near Pembridge, 
in Herefordshire, and Bere Forest, by Portsdown, Co. Hants. 

OLD STORAGE, OR STORRIDGE. 

The name of this beautiful promontory, or headland, is most 
probably of ancient British date, and derived from Tar, Tor, or 
Tarit. Mr. Bryant says the Amoniansf, in the early ages, built 
obelisks and towers, either upon artificial mounds or upon natural 
eminences, and called them Tar and Tor, which signified, in their 
language, and that of the Chaldees, both a hill and a tower. 
That they were oftentimes compounded, and styled Tor-is, or fire- 
towers, on account of the light which they exhibited, and the fires 
which were preserved in them J ; and that Turit, or Tirit also 
signified a tower or turret §. 

In the Celtic, Taran means thunder, Taranis is the name of 
the Celtic god of thunder, and Tan means fire||. 

This being the principal, and perhaps the most anciently- 
named hill in that locality, was probably in after ages called Old 

* A place called Bercroft (Bearcroft) is mentioned in Oswald's Charter, No. 
680, in the " Codex Dip." Also, see Heming's " Cartulary," Vol. ii., p. 355, 
which states it to he on the boundary of Himbleton, Co. Worcester. 

+ The descendants of Ham. 

X Bryant's " Ancient Mythology," Vol. i., pp. 399, 400. 

§ Ibid., p. 404. 

|| See p. 124. 



191 

Torit, Torrage, or Torage *, in contradistinction to other minor 
Tors in the vicinity ; and there is a hill called the Tar, or Tor 
Coppice at the foot of it. The S, added at the beginning of the 
word, is a common provincial vulgarism f. Old Storage is situated 
in the hamlet of Alfrick, in the parish of Suckley. The views 
from it are particularly fine ; no less than six or seven counties 
have been frequently pointed out to me from the summit, called 
the Beck, near a place named the Vineyard. 

If Sir Henry Spelman were right in his conjecture, that St. 
Augustine's Oak stood in Alfrick, I should think, from the known 
predilection and good taste of the ecclesiastics in the early ages 
for commanding situations and beautiful scenery, that the oak 
grew on the top of Old Storage ; and indeed, until within about 
twenty years, the remains of a very ancient oak did actually stand 
close to the Beck farm-house, near to the top of the hill, and 
within half a field's length of the modern Beck oak, which grows 
quite upon the pinnacle J. 

There is a slight trench running across the top of the common, 
from east to west, close by the spot where the ancient oak stood ; 
probably the trace of a sacred boundary. 

The following are particulars of some remarkable customs 
still observed in this kingdom (at which slight trenches are cut), 
and which clearly appear to be relics of the worship either of 
Baal or Pales. 

In Hone's " Every-Day Book," Vol. i., p. 594, published 
1838, it is stated, that in Ireland, " May-day is called 'lana 
Beal-tina;' and May-eve, ' neen na Beal-tina;' that is, day and 
eve of Beal's fire, from its having been, in heathen times, con- 
secrated to the god Beal, or Belus ; whence also the month of 
May is termed, in Irish, ' mi na Beal- tine.' The ceremony 
practised on May- eve, of making the cows leap over lighted 
straw, or faggots, has been generally traced to the worship of 

* There are Great Storage Hill and Coppice, and Little Storage Hill, in 
Beoley; and a river called Torridge, near Little Torrington, Co. Devon. 

+ As Stitchen Hill for Pitchen Hill, Stitches for Pitches. 

{ See further remarks on St. Augustine's Oak in the accounts of Alfrick and 
Abberley Hill. 



192 

that deity. It is now vulgarly used in order to save the milk 
from being pilfered by the good people-." 

Mr. Hone also gives many instances! of the custom, in 
various parts of the kingdom, of kindling fires, dancing round 
them, leaping over them, and passing through them, on Mid- 
summer-eve, Midsummer-day, All Saints '-eve, and All Saints '- 
day. And in Vol. ii., p. 659, it is stated that Dr. Jamieson, in 
his " Dictionary of the Scottish Language," mentions a festival 
called Beltane, or Beltein, annually held in Scotland, on Old 
May-day ; that a town in Perthshire is called " Tillee Beltein," 
i.e. the eminence (or high place) of the fire of Baal ; that, near 
this, are two druidical temples of upright stones, with a well 
adjacent to one of them, still held in great veneration for its 
sanctity, and, on that account, visited by vast numbers of super- 
stitious people ; that, in the parish of Callander (in the same 
county), upon " Beltein-day," they cut a circular trench in the 
ground, sufficient to enclose the whole company assembled ; that 
they kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk, about the 
consistence of a custard ; that they knead a cake of oatmeal, 
which is toasted at the embers against a stone ; and after the 
custard is eaten, they divide the ca,ke into as many equal parts as 
there are persons present, and one part is made perfectly black 
with charcoal ; that the bits of cake are then put into a bonnet, 
and drawn, blindfold, and he who draws the black bit is considered 
as devoted to be sacrificed to Baal, and is obliged to leap three 
times through the flame. 

In a work published in 1823, by W. Grant Stewart, Esq., on 
" The Highland Superstitions relative to Belton-eve," the author 
gives the following different interpretation to the name : — 

" Belton is derived from two Gaelic words, conjoined — 
' Pale-tein,' signifying Pale's fire, and not Baal's fire, as some 
suppose. The strange relics of Pagan idolatry which gave rise 
to this feast was, no doubt, introduced into these countries, like 
many others of our more permanent superstitions, by the Druids. 
Pales (of whom we read in the heathenish mythologies) was the 

* A cant name for the fairies. 

t Vol. i., pp. 846, 847, 848, 854, 1412, 1413, 1414, 1422. 



193 

goddess of Shepherds and protectress of Flocks. Her feast 
was always celebrated in the month of April, on which occasion 
no victim was killed, and nothing was offered but the fruits of 
the earth. The shepherds purified flocks with the smoke of 
sulphur, juniper, box-wood, rosemary, &c. They then made a 
large fire, round which they danced, and offered to the goddess 
milk, cheese, eggs, &c, holding their faces towards the east, and 
uttering ejaculations peculiar to the occasion*. Those interesting 
relics of the religious opinions of our ancestors, until of late, 
remained pretty entire in some parts of the Highlands f." 

There is a hillock called the Knap, at the foot of Old Storage, 
in Alfrick. Knap, in Saxon, means a hillock ; but the Kev. E. 
Duke, in his work on the " Druidical Temples of the County of 
Wilts," considers that Knap Hill, which lies between Albury and 
Stonehenge, was derived from Kneph, or Cneph, which, as well 
as Thoth \, was the Egyptian or Phoenician name for Mercury. 
The greater probability, however, is, that the name of Knap, in 
Alfrick, came from the Saxon. 



ALFEICK 



THE ROUND HILL, RAVENHILLS, ALFRED THE 
GREAT, THE DANES, AND St. AUGUSTINE'S OAK. 

Dr. Nash (" History," Vol. ii., p. 399), says :— " Alfric was 
anciently called Alferwyke§, and Alfredeswic ;" but he does not 

* See Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. i., pp. 366, 367, relative to Pol 
or Pal. There is Polsden, in Hants ; and Polsdon, in Surrey ; and it is 
possible that Podon, or Poden, in Church Honeybourne, Co. Worcester, may 
be similarly derived. 

+ Vide the account of Pauntley. 

| But see the acccount of the Toothills. 

§ There was a chief named Alfere, in Edward the Martyr's reign, who 
possessed the monastery of Evesham.— (See Mr. May's " History of Evesham," 
pp. 27, 28. 

O 



194 

quote any authorities upon the subject. He, however, refers* to 
an Inquisition, dated in 1479, in which the two chapelries of 
Lullesley and Afurwikef are mentioned as belonging to the 
parish of Suckley j ; and perhaps he considered the word 
Afurwike as synonymous with Alferwyke or Alf redes wic. 

In the " Exemplification of a Decree," in my possession, 
dated 1585 §, and made relative to certain church questions 
between Suckley, Alfrick, and Lulsley, it is spelt Alfrick, Alfrike, 
(alias Awfrike,) Awfrik, Aufrik, and Alfrik; and Alfric in 
visitations of 1461 and 1507; and Alfrick, in an award, dated 
in 1524. 

THE BOUND HILL. 

There is a tumulus called the Eound Hill|| in Alfrick, and 
adjoining it a ridge named Walls Hill II, in the Suckley Hill 
chain ; near to it is a lane in Alfrick and Lulsley called Green 

Street**. 

RAVENHILLS, ALFRED THE GREAT, AND THE 
DANES. 

To return to the name Alfredeswic, it must be observed, in 
the first place, that, on the borders of Alfrick and Lulsley, just 
by the above-mentioned Round Hill, there are places called 
Ravenhills, and Ravenhills Green ff, vulgo, Raffnalls Green ; and 
the probability is that they were so called from the Danish 
standard of the raven, which may have been erected at the spot; 
for there is a hill in Yorkshire, where the Danes landed, which is 
so called, as will appear by the following extract from Gough's 

* Pp. 397, 398. 

+ They are called Lulsey and Alfric, in Bacon's " Liber Regis," p. 977. 

j In " Domesday Book," it is called Svchelei in Dodintret hundred. 

§ See also Nash, Vol. ii., p. 75, " Corrections and Additions." 

|| It has within these few years been planted with ash, and no doubt will in 
time be so mixed up with the neighbouring coppice woods as scarcely to be 
discernible. 

% Vide Iter VI. 

** Ibid. 

+ + The former being in Alfrick, and the latter in Lulsley. In Greenwood's 
Map, published in 1822, the latter is by mistake called " Baffler's Green." 



195 

" Camden * :" — " When the Danes, under Inguar and Hubba, 
landed, a.d. 867, in Dunsby Bay, two miles east [west] of this 
place [Whitby], and encamped on an eminence still called from 
their standard Kavenshill, they destroyed the monastery, &c." 
That and another hill of the same name are also thus noticed in 
Hinderwell's " History of Scarborough :" — " Hungar and Hubba, 
two celebrated Danish chieftains, having collected a great many ad- 
venturers, set sail for England with a numerous fleet in the spring 
of the year 876 f , and landed in two divisions. The first divi- 
sion, commanded by Hubba, debarked in Dunsby Bay, about two 
miles to the westward of Streanshalh (Whitby), where they 
erected their standard, a raven, on an eminence of rising ground, 
which is supposed to have been known ever since by the name of 
Raven Hill ; while the other division, under Hungar, made their 
landing good at Peak, about seven miles to the eastward of 
Streanshalh, and ten to the north-west of Scarborough, where, on 
the top of a very high cliff or hill, they erected another standard 
or flag, with a raven pourtrayed thereon, which might be seen 
all the country round ; which hill is to this day also known by 
the name of Raven Hill." It may be observed that there was a 
person named Alfric II., Earl of Leicester, who was slain by this 
Hubba at Skrekingham, in Lincolnshire X, during Alfred's time. 
It is said in some of the histories, that Odun, Earl of Devon- 
shire, in a battle which took place in that county with Hubba, in 
the year 879, defeated the Danes and captured their famous 
magical standard, which was called Reafan, from its having the 
figure of a raven § embroidered upon it by the three sisters of 
Hubba ||. 

* Vol. iii., p. 324, second edition, 1806. 

+ Camden says " 867." 

+ See Gough's " Camden," Vol. ii., p. 334, second edition, 1806. 

§ It may be observed here that children to the present day commonly call 
any large tame bird they may have by the pet name of Raff, Eafe, or Ralph. 
In Hone's " Table Book," pp. 826, 827, he gives an account of a tame raven 
which was called Rafe. 

|| See Sydney's " History of England," &c. The above-mentioned was a 
most important event, as it drew Alfred from his retreat to further victories, 
and ultimate triumph. 



196 

In Gibson's " Camden*" it is stated, that there was upon the 
coast of Devonshire, a castle called Kenuith [or Kenwith], " and 
so situated, that there was no approaching it on any side but the 
east, where, in the year 879, Hubba, the Dane who hadharrassed 
the English, cutting off great numbers of them, was himself cut 
off, and the place was from thenceforward called Hubbestow by 
our historians. At the same time, the Danish standard, called 
Reafan, was taken by the English, which I the rather observe, 
because, from a little story in ' Asser Menevensis,' who has re- 
corded these matters, it may be gathered that the Danes had a 
crowf in their standard, which is said to have been wrought in 
needlework by the daughters of Lodbroc the Dane ; and, as they 
conceived, it made them invincible." 

The following similar story, taken from Thierry's " History of 
the Norman Conquest" (p. 70), is told of the three sisters of 
Sweyn : — " 1004 to 1006. At their disembarkation on the 
English coast, the Danes, formed into battallions, unfurled a 
mysterious standard, which they denominated the raven. It was 
a banner of white silk, in the centre of which was embroidered a 
raven, with open beak and extended wings : three of King 
Sweyn 's sisters had embroidered it in a night, accompanying 
their labour with magic incantations and gesticulations. This 
banner, which, agreeably to the superstitious notions of the 
Scandinavians, was a sure pledge of victory, increased the ardour 
and the confidence of the fresh invaders," &c. 

Dr. Thomas, in his " Survey and account of Worcester Cathe- 
dral," &c, published in 1737, mentions a place called Ravenshill, 
or Raefneshill, situated two miles east of Worcester {, and says, 
that in the year 876, Coenwlf, King of the Mercians, gave 



* Vol. i., p. 167, fourth edition, 1772. 

+ Also see Gough's " Camden" thereon, Vol. i., p. 30, first edition, 1789, 
where it is called a raven. 

I It lies about three miles from the city, in the midst of Danish relics. 
Vide the accounts of Warndon and Crowle. Also see " Codex Dip." No. 209, 
and 209 App., Vol. hi., as to this Hraefneshyl ; and No. 289, and 289 App., 
Vol. iii., as to Hrefnespyt, near Honeybourne, in this county. 



197 

Rasfneshill to the Bishop of Worcester, &c. * ; and that Bright- 
eagus, Bishop of Worcester in the reign of Canute, gave Ravens- 
hill to his kinsman Brihtwine f. 

Dr. Nash, in his account of Tibberton, says, " on the north 
side of the parish, situate on a hill, is Ravenhull. Britteagus, 
the 22nd Bishop of Worcester, a.d. 1033, gave it to a certain 
kinsman of his, called Swythynes, after whose death the sheriff 
Urso invaded it," &c. 

There is a piece of land called the Raven's Dole, in the Ber- 
row; Raven's Hay, in Pendock; Raven Hill, in the parish of 
Upton-on- Severn ; and Raven's Bank, in Beoley. 

In Welland there are pieces of land called Dane Moor Copse, 
and Dane Moor Hill ; the Danes, in the Borough of Kidder- 
minster ; Danes Field, in Belbroughton ; Danes Close, in Claines ; 
Danes Meadow, in Doderhill ; Danes Close, in Kempsey ; Dane 
Piece, in Lower Milton, in the parish of Kidderminster ; and 
Dane Wood, east of Pirton, — all in Worcestershire. Likewise, 
Dane Hopyardj, in Cradley, Herefordshire. 

Now, it is observable here, that as Welland, Upton, Cradley, 
Alfrick, and Lulsley, are upon or near the line of the Malvern, 
Old Storage, and Suckley chain of hills ; they, therefore, were 
the most likely parts in the district to be the sites of battles 
between the Saxons and Danes. It is, however, a question 
whether Alfred was in Worcestershire, or rather in the region 
afterwards called Worcestershire during any of these battles. On 
this point I have not found any positive evidence ; yet the fol- 
lowing extracts from various works may tend to throw some light 
upon the subject ; — but I must first observe that the most likely 
time of his being in Worcestershire, if at all, was either about 
the year 877, when the Danes made themselves masters of 
Mercia; or in 880 or 883, when he signed two charters of 
Ethelred, viceroy of Mercia ; or when he signed another of such 
charters (without date), as hereafter mentioned ; or in or about 

* See App. 25. 

+ See App. 63, and Heming's " Cartulary," pp. 267, 307, 337. 
I The word Hopyard attached to the above name must be comparatively 
modern, it probably was Dane ground, or some such name, in days of yore, 



198 

the year 894, when he drove Hasting, the celebrated Danish 
pirate, from the Mercian kingdom, of which Worcestershire 
formed a part. 

It is stated in " A Concise History of Worcestershire," pub- 
lished in 1808, that, " when England was overrun with the 
depredations of the Danes, we find this place [Worcester] to 
have suffered in the general wretchedness of the kingdom. It 
was plundered and burnt to the ground ; insomuch that it re- 
mained in ruins and uninhabited, until Ethelred, viceroy of the 
Wiccians*, with his lady, Ethelfreda, [Ethelflaed], daughter of 
Alfred the Great, invited the inhabitants to resort again to their 
ancient residence. A bishop's see was established here, and, 
numbers returning, great privileges were granted to them." 

In Green's " History of Worcester," Vol. i., p. 18, is the fol- 
lowing : — " The great Alfred, whose paternal throne was that of 
Wessex, was the first king in England who had all the provinces 
of the heptarchy under his immediate dominion ; yet he thought 
it expedient to govern the Mercians by a prince of their ancient 
nobility, Duke Ethelred, to whom he had given his daughter 
Ethelfleda, a very heroine, in marriage. Several towns in Mer- 
cia (Chester, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Warwick, and Bridgenorth) 
are indebted to this noble pair, at least to Ethelfleda, who sur- 
viving the duke seven years, died a.d. 91.9. Worcester also has 
obligations to them ; for, by a charter of theirs f, signed in King 
Alfred's reign (i. e. before a.d. 900), upon Bishop Waerfred'sj 
desire that the city of Weogernaceastre might be improved and 
fortified with bulwarks for the security of its inhabitants, they 
granted to the church, or minster there, one-half of the royal 
dues or tolls arising either from the market or the street, reserv- 
ing only the wain shilling and the seam penny § entire to the 

* Wiccia, a province of the Mercian kingdom, contained Worcestershire, 
Gloucestershire, and part of Warwickshire. He appears to have been Duke 
of Wiccia and viceroy of Mercia. 

+ " Heming's ' Cartulary,' p. 3." 

I " Or Waerferth, or Werfrith." 

§ " This was a duty on wares carried out ; one penny each horse-load, and 
twelve times as much on a loaded wain." 



199 

king*. But, out of all his land-rents, and the mulcts for fighting, 
theft, fraud, &c, and the other forfeitures that might accrue to 
the crown, they assigned a moiety to the use of St. Peter's Church 
and See." 

With respect to this important charter, it proves that Alfred 
was in Mercia when it was granted, for it states that it was given 
under witness of Alfred the king, and of all the Witan in 
Mercia. Now, as this charter contributed so largely towards 
the amelioration of the wretched condition of Worcester, after it 
was ravaged by the Danes, and entered so minutely into the con- 
cerns of the place, it appears very probable that Alfred, and his 
son-in-law and daughter, and the Witena, sat at Worcester at that 
time, in order that they might, upon the spot, be enabled to take 
all the circumstances of the case into their consideration. 

Since writing the above, I am happy to find the following 
notice of this charter in Kemble's " Saxons in England f:" — 
" .EDELRED, DUKE OF MERCIA, a.d. 878-899.— At a 
gemot held between these years, and very likely at Worcester, 
iEthelred and iEthelflged commanded a burh or fortification to be 
built for the people of that city, and the cathedral to be enlarged. 
The endowments and privileges which are granted by the instru- 
ment are extensive and instructive j." 

In the same page Mr. Kemble notices another charter of 
iEthelred and iEthelflaBd, as follows : — 

" .EDELRED, DUKE OF MERCIA, a.d. 888.— This gemot 
was held at Saltwic in Worcestershire, to consult upon affairs 
both ecclesiastical and secular. The witan assembled from far 
and near§." 

Now, in the former case it is pretty evident that Alfred, and 
his son-in-law and daughter, did sit at Worcester ; and in the 

* The reservation is as follows : — " The wain-shilling and load-penny are to 
go to the king's hand, as they always did, from Saltwic." — See the account of 
Droitwich, hereafter. 

+ Vol. ii., p. 252, chap. Witena Gemot of the Saxons. 

j See " Codex Dip.," No. 1075. The date is therein set down as between 
873 and 899. 

§ " Codex Dip.," Nos. 327, 1068. 



200 

latter case, it is clear that iEthelred and iEthelflaed sat at Salt- 
wic, meaning Droitwich*, which lies only about seven miles 
from Worcester. 

As the first-mentioned charter is so interesting in a local point 
of view, and so instructive relative to the manners and customs 
of those times, I shall here give a translation of it, taken from 
Mr. Kemble's above-mentioned workf. 

" To Almighty God, true Unity and holy Trinity in heaven, 
be praise and glory and rendering of thanks, for all his benefits 
bestowed upon us ! Firstly, for whose love, and for St. Peter's 
and the church at Worcester, and at the request of Werfrith the 
bishop, their friend, iEthelraed the ealderman, and iEthelflaed 
commanded the burh at Worcester to be built, and eke God's 
praise to be there upraised. And now they make known by this 
charter, that of all the rights which appertain to their lordship, 
both in market and in street, within the byrig and without, they 
grant half to God and St. Peter and the lord of the church ; that 
those who are in the place may be the better provided, that 
they may thereby in some sort easier aid the brotherhood, and 
that their remembrance may be the firmer kept in mind, in the 
place, as long as God's service is done within the minster.. And 
Werfrith the bishop, and his flock, have appointed this service, 
before the daily one, both during their lives and after, to sing at 
matins, vespers and ' undernsong,' the psalm De Profundis, 
during their lives; and after their death, Laudate Dominum; 
and every Saturday, in St. Peter's church, thirty psalms, and a 
mass for them, whether alive or dead. iEthelrsed and iEthelflaed 
proclaim, that they have just granted with good- will to God and 
St. Peter, under witness of iElfred the king, and all the witan in 
Mercia, excepting that the wain-shilling and load-penny J are to 
go to the king's hand, as they always did, from Saltwic ; but as 

* See hereafter " Droitwich." 

+ Vol. ii p. 328. 

} " There can be no doubt that Wsenscilling, written erroneously in the MS. 
Weegnscilling, is what is meant by statio et inoneratio plaustrorum, in another 
charter. — ' Codex Dip.,' No. 1066. It is custom or toll upon the standing and 
loading of the salt-waggons." 



201 

for every thing else, as landfeoh*, fihtwite, stalu, wohceapung, 
and all the customs from which any fine may arise, let the lord 
of the church have half of it, for God's sake and St. Peter's, as it 
was arranged about the market and the streets ; and without the 
market-place, let the bishop enjoy his rights, as of old our prede- 
cessors decreed and privileged. And iEthelraed and iEthelflsed 
did this by witness of iElfred the king, and by witness of those 
witan of the Mercians whose names stand written hereafter ; and 
in the name of God Almighty they adjure all their successors 
never to diminish these alms which they have granted to the 
church for God's love and St. Peter's ! " 

Nash, in his " History," Vol. ii., App., p. 109, thus notices 
the subject . — " When the kingdom was overrun by the Danes, 
this city (Worcester) was sacked and destroyed by them, and, 
being in ruins, till Ethelred, viceroy of the Wiccians, with his 
Lady Ethelfleda, daughter of King Alfred, rebuilt, enlarged, 
adorned, and gave it many privileges, for which Bishop W^erfrith 
and his family, at St. Peter's, agreed to say many prayers for 
them, both alive and dead, and gave unto them several lands f- 
Witnesses thereto, King Alfred and others J." 

It is true that this grant of Bishop Werfrith (which bears date 
in 904) is witnessed by a person of the name of Alfred, who, 
however, could not have been the king, as he died three or four 
years previously ; besides, had it been the king, no doubt his 
title would have been added (as the titles of those of rank were) ; 
On the contrary, the name is simply given with a cross before it, 

* " Landfeoh, land-fee, probably a recognitory rent for land held under the 
burh or city. Fihtwite, fine for brawling in the city. Stalu, fine or mulct for 
theft. Wohceapung, fine for buying or selling contrary to the rules of the 
market." 

f Namely, to them and their daughter ^Elfwine, a vill in Worcester, and about 
132 acres of arable and meadow land, for three lives, with reversion to the 
see, on condition that they would be good friends and protectors to the chapter. 
It may be reasonably inferred, from this and the previous charter, that 
Ethelred and his family resided at Worcester, " the metropolis of the west." 

* Heming's " Cartulary," p. 13 ; also see the manuscript in the Cotton 
Collection, British Museum ; " Tiberius, ' A xiii., fo. 6b ; and " Codex 
Dip.," No. 339. 



202 

like several of the other signatures of witnesses of inferior note. 
It, however, does not follow, as a matter of course, that all the 
persons who, in those times, merely made their mark could not 
write ; as, for a certain period, it became the fashion, even for 
those who were masters of the art of penmanship, to leave it to 
the scribe to add their names opposite to their marks, and also 
their titles, if they were persons of rank or distinction. 

In proof of this, it is observable that Alfred did sign and 
confirm, by a mark, Duke iEthelred and iEthelflseda's charter, 
dated in 880, as follows : — " + Ego iElfred rex consensi et sub- 
scripsi ;" and also the Duke's charter, dated 883, as follows : — 
" + Ego iElfred rex huius traditionis munificentiam signo 
sanctae crucis adfirmo." — (See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 311, 313, 
and 313 App., Vol. iii.) — And the charter relative to property 
in London, granted to Bishop Werfrith, dated in 889, is signed 
by the three as follows : — " -J- Ego iElfred rex anglorum et 
Saxonum, hanc donationem confirmans signo crucis subscribo.+ 
Ego iEthelred, subregulus et patricius Merciorum, hanc dona- 
tionem signo crucis subscripsi. + Ego iEthelflsed consensi. 
— (See Heming's " Cartulary," p. 43 ; and " Codex Dip.," 
No. 316.) 

Worcester was again burnt during the reign of Hardicanute, 
for refusing to pay the Danegelt; and the inhabitants would 
have been all put to the sword, had they not fled to Bevere 
Island, about three miles from the city, and fortified themselves 
there. It is said that Alfric, Archbishop of York, instigated the 
king to this act of cruelty, because the citizens had refused to 
accept him as their bishop*. 

Assuming that Alfrick was formerly named Alfredeswic, or 
Alferwikef, as stated by Dr. Nash, the fact of a place called 

* There also was iElfere, Duke of Mercia, temp. King Edgar ; iElfrick, a 
learned and pious writer in the time of Ethelred II. ; and iElrick, or Agelric, 
Archdeacon of Worcester, temp. Bishop Wulstan. 

+ There is also Alfreton, north of Worcester ; Alfreton parish, and market 
town, Co. Derby. This town is said to have derived its name from Alfred, 
who is reported to have been its founder. Alfrington tything, Co. Dorset ; 
and Alfriston parish, Co. Sussex. Tumuli are numerous in this latter parish, 



203 

Kavenhills, and Ravenhills Green, or Raffnals Green-, being just 
by the Round Hill, in Alfrick, is strong presumptive evidence 
of a battle having been fought in that quarter with the Danes, 
during the time of Alfred ; and the place may have been called 
Alfredeswic, either on occasion of the battle, or shortly after- 
wards ; when it is said by some writers that Alfred divided the 
kingdom into counties, hundreds, and tythings ; but the better 
opinion appears to be, that such sub-divisions existed long pre- 
viously, but that he probably did alter the boundaries of some of 
them, and consolidated others f which were too small ; and this 
would, in some instances, cause new names to be given to such 
divisions. The circumstance of the viceroy of the Mercians 
having married the daughter of Alfred, as before stated, also 
tends to add weight to the above derivation of Alfrick ; for what 
was more natural than that the son-in-law and daughter should 
honour their illustrious father by calling a certain part of the 
viceroyalty by his name, particularly if it was the site of one of 
his or their great exploits ? 

In proof that there were subdivisions before Alfred's time, 
resembling the above-mentioned, there is a place in Suckley, in 
Worcestershire, on the border of Cradley, in Herefordshire, 
called " The Bantej," or " Bant." Now, Mr. Kemble, in his 
" Saxons in England," Vol. i., after describing " The Mark," 
March (mearc), or smallest division of land on which, in the 
early Saxon times, a greater or lesser number of freemen settled 
for purposes of cultivation, and for the sake of mutual profit 
and protection, proceeds, in p. 72, to describe the Ga, or Scir, thus : — 

" Next in order of constitution, if not of time, is the union of 
two, three, or more marks, in a federal bond, for purposes of a 

and ancient urns, and other relics, have been discovered. — (See Wright's 
" Gazetteer." 

* Four roads meet at this green : one of them runs up to the Round Hill. 

+ See Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. L, p. 248 ; and also Astwood. 

} It lies between Wallridge and the Upper and Lower Barrow (or Berrow). 
See the Ordnance Map. This place is described as " The Bante," in certain 
title deeds referred to in the " 23rd Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring 
concerning Charities," p. 579. 



204 

religious, judicial, or even political character. The technical 
name for such a union is, in Germany, a ' Gau,' or ' Bant* ;' 
in England, the ancient name ' Ga ' has been almost universally 
superseded by that of ' Scir,' or ' Shire.' " 

With respect to the name " Worcester," it is said that 
Ethelred, King of Mercia, having resolved to divide Mercia into 
five separate dioceses, Osric, viceroy of Wiccia, prevailed upon 
him to establish one of them at Wigornaceastre, the metropolis 
of his province ; and that, in 679, Bosel was consecrated first 
bishop, by the style of Episcopus Huicciorum, and invested with 
full authority to preside over the ecclesiastical affairs of Huiccia 
or Wiccia; and in charters of this Ethelred, dated 691 or 692, 
and 692 +, Worcester is styled Uueogorna ciuitate, and Uuegerna- 
cester. Now here we have evidence of the Saxon name of Wor- 
cester]: two centuries before the final expulsion of the Danes 
from Mercia by Alfred ; but still there is no decisive proof as to 
when the county was so called. It is possible that, as Wiccia 
included no more than Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and part 
of Warwickshire, that, at first, the shire was co-extensive with 
the dukedom, or see ; and that, either before or during Alfred's 
time, the sub-division took place §. The probable apportionment 
of the hamlet of Alfredeswic, or Alfrick, in his time, appears to 
favour the idea that other changes were then made. 

My pamphlet on the " Ignis-fatuus ; or, Will-o'-the-Wisp and 
the Fairies," was published in February 1846 ; and in the Sep- 
tember following, a letter appeared in the " Athenaeum ||," 
wherein the writer says, " Alfrick " (the place in question) 



* " Less usual are Eiba and Para. The Norse Herrad may in some sense 
be compared with these divisions." 

+ See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 32, 34. 

I Which, in the Latin, is Wigorna et Vigornia.— (See Nash, Vol. ii., App., 
p. 109.) 

§ It is named Wigercestresire in Edward the Confessor's charter of 1066, 
and Wirecestrescire in another of his charters. — (See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 
829, 830.) 

|| For September 19th, 1846, p. 955.— (Sec also the numbers for October 
2nd and 9th, 1847, pp. 1030, 1055.) 



205 

" means, literally, ' elf,' or • fairy kingdom-.'" Now, as Alfrick 
and the hamlet of Lulsley, which adjoins it, certainly were con- 
sidered as fairy-land, as stated in my pamphlet (the substance of 
which is given in the latter part of this work), we must admit 
that this view of the etymology is not altogether without reason ; 
and it may have been the opinion in mediaeval times, although we 
consider the one proposed above to be the more probable. 

ST. AUGUSTINE'S OAK. 

In addition to what has been said under the title " Old Storage," 
relative to the site of St. Augustine's Oak, it may be further ob- 
served that Bede, in his "Ecclesiastical History f," states that 
" Augustine, with the assistance of King Ethelbert, drew together, 
to confer with him, the bishops or doctors of the next province of 
the Britons, at a place which is to this day called Augustine's Ac, 
that is Augustine's Oak, on the borders of the Wiccii and West 
Saxons." Here then we have an account of the oak as far back 
as the year 731, when Bede's " History" was written. 

Camden in his " Britannia" says, " There is a place whose 

situation is not exactly known, in this county [Worcester], called 

Augustyne's ace, Augustine's Oak, where Augustine, the 

Apostle of the English, and the British bishops met, and after some 

squabbling about the observance of Easter, the preaching of the 

Gospel, and administration of baptism according to the ritual of 

the Bomish Church, separated with as little agreement as 

before \." 

Gough, in his Additions to " Camden," Vol. ii., p. 472, second 

edition, remarks, " Spelman thought he found Austin's Oak at 

Aufric, a village bordering on Herefordshire, which, as he explains 

Bede§ and Henry of Huntingdon ||, lies in the confines of the 

* The elves are called Alfar in Scandinavia (see Thorpe's " Northern 
Mythology," Vol. i., p. 25, note 5) ; and Dr. Nash certainly describes 
" Alfrick " as Alferwyke, and Alfredeswic, as before stated. 

+ B. ii., c. 2., p. 81, Giles's translation. 

\ This conference is said to have taken place during the Saxon heptarchy 
in a.d. 603. 

§ « II." 

|| « III., 325." 



206 

Wiccii and West Saxons, and may be a contraction of Austinfric * 
q. d. Austin's territory. But, not to mention that the true name of 
this village in writings! is Aulfric and Alfredeswic, he makes 
Herefordshire a province of the West Saxons ; and probably the 
Oak was a tree, and not a village in any age j. 

Dr. Nash, in his account of " Suckley," says, " We are told in 
the Additions to ' Camden §' that Sir Henry Spelman thought 
there was some remains of the name of Augustine's Oak in 
Aufrick, which, as he explains Huntingdon, lies on the confines 
of the Wiccians and the West Saxons (' in confinio Wicciorum et 
occidentalium Saxonum,' p. 186) ' Ac id est robur Augustini in 
confinio Huicciorum et occidentalium Saxonum.' — Bede ,L. 2, c. 2, 
whom Huntingdon copied." The Doctor then added, " The pro- 
vince of the Wiccians did indeed border on the West Saxons ; 
but Worcestershire, much less that part which joins Hereford- 
shire, did not, though in the province of the Wiccians. When 
Bede wrote, this province was not divided into counties, &c. 
Bishop Gibson, in his "Additions to Worcestershire," says this 
oak was in the confines of the Wiccians and West Saxons. He 
does not say it was in Wiccia, much less in that part of the pro- 
vince which is now called Worcestershire ; but that it was in the 
confines of the West Saxons, upon which the part now called 
Worcestershire did not border ; wherefore, admitting this oak to 
have been in the confines of Huiccia (for in the same ' Additions' 
we read Vectorium), it might have stood in that part of Glouces- 
tershire which bounds the confines of Wilts and Somersetshire, 
provinces of the West Saxon kingdom, perhaps near Tetbury||, in 
Gloucestershire." 

The Doctor also added, that " Sir Henry Spelman was drawn 

* Query of Austinric. 

+ Query — In what writings is it called Alfredeswic ? As Dr. Nash's " His- 
tory" was published in 1781, the above probably was quoted from him, for 
which, however, he gives no authority as before stated. The first edition 
of Gough's Camden was published in 1789, and the second edition in 1806. 

I There is no village in the hamlet, unless a very few cottages scattered 
about near Alfrick Pound may be called a village. 

§ That is, in those published prior to Gough's additions. 

l| MSS. Thomas and Lyttleton. 



207 

into the above supposition by the old maps, &c, which write the 
name of this place Acfrick." " Some have supposed it to stand 
at Aka or Kock ; others at a place called Apostle's Oak, near 
Stanford Bridge ; others again, with still less reason, suppose it 
might have been the Mitre Oak, in the parish of Hartlebury," 
Nash, Vol. ii., p. 397. The Doctor also, in " Postscript Cor- 
rections and Additions," Vol. ii., p. 19, in speaking of Aka or 
Kock, described in Vol. i., p. 10, &c, says, " Some have supposed 
this to have been the place where St. Augustine met the British 
bishops under a great oak, and that from hence the parish ob- 
tained its name : certain it is here was a hollow oak held in great 
veneration by the country people, and called by them the Apostles 
Oak. When the turnpike was first erected, it served as a habi- 
tation for the keeper, and through his carelessness was burnt 
down*." 

Having thus brought together the various conjectures which 
have been offered by different writers concerning the site of this 
celebrated oak, we will only further add that, supposing it to have 
been in Alfrick, the top of Old Storage would seem to be the spot 
in that locality on which, most probably, it stood. 

Some further mentions of Alfrick will be found in the sections 
on Ancient Castles, Primitive Boads, and Folk-lore. 



Before leaving the hamlet, I must notice a very curious relic. 
It does not, however, belong to this county ; but as I became 
acquainted with the facts respecting it in Alfrick, and as I am not 
likely to be a Bedfordshire historian, I feel that I cannot do 
better than introduce the subject here. 

The late Dr. Abbot, chaplain to the Duke of Bedford, used 
occasionally to visit some relatives of his of the name of Harris, 
who lived at Chirkenhill, in the parish of Leigh, and upon those 
occasions he sometimes came to the Upper House in Alfrick, during 
my late father's time, and used to show a ring, which he said 
belonged to the celebrated John Bunyan. The remembrance of 
this circumstance led me, in later times, to make some inquiries 

* See the account of Abberly relative to a supposed sapling from this oak. 



208 

respecting the ring, of one of the Chirkenhill family, — namely, 
the Doctor's niece, Mrs. Williams, of Tivoli Lodge, Newport, 
Monmouthshire, who resided with him several years before her 
marriage, and up to the time of his death ; and who, by letters 
dated respectively November and December, 1830, kindly in- 
formed me that Dr. Abbot, in his last illness, presented Bunyan's 
ring to the Eev. G. H. Bowers, of Bedford, and that if she recol- 
lected right, it was found at the time the North Gate House on 
Bedford Bridge w r as taken down in 1765, w 7 hich was the prison in 
which Bunyan was confined. That the Gate House was near the 
centre of the bridge, and that she believed the ring was found in 
its ruins, and sold to her uncle by a workman. That she then 
had in her possession a print, published on the 1st of March, 
1772*, of the Bridge and Gate House as they stood in Bunyan's 
time. That the drawing from which the print was taken was 
made 1761, in which the North Gate House appears ; and that 
she had heard Dr. Abbot say the prison was at times nearly under 
water. That the ring was very beautiful, and used as a signet. 
That it was made of fine gold, and was in a most perfect state. 
That the bridge was supposed to be built in Queen Marys reign, 
in lieu of a prior one. That there were two Gate Houses upon 
the bridge near the centre, which were taken down together. 
That the one on the north was used for the prison, as before 
stated ; and that on the south served as a store house for the 
arms and ammunition of the troops quartered there. 

Mrs. Williams also gave me a drawing of the Bridge and Gate 
House taken from the print. — (See the lithographic engraving 
of it here represented, Plate 5). The prison was that part 
where the loophole appears. 

Upon receipt of these communications I sent the particulars to 
Mr. Bower, of Bedford, perpetual curate of Elstow (where Bunyan 
was bornf) and requested further information, who, in reply, 
dated 17th November, 1830, stated that Bunyan's ring was pre- 
sented to him by the late Dr. Abbot, in his last illness, in August 

* By S. Hooper, No. 25, Ludgate Hill, and B. Godfrey, Sen. 
+ Born 1628; died 12th August, 1688. 



&Q9 

1817, and was then in his possession. That the circumstances 
related by Mrs. Williams in all material points coincided pre- 
cisely with the impression left on his own mind by Dr. Abbot's 
description of the place from whence, and the mode by which, he 
obtained it. That the Doctor had no doubt of its being really 
the ring worn by Bunyan when imprisoned in the Gate House at 
Bedford. That the gold had but very little alloy in it, and that 
the impression was rude, and the ring altogether appeared to 
have been much worn. 

Mr. Bower also kindly sent me a sketch of the ring, and a 
sealing wax impression of its seal, which contains the repre- 
sentation of a deaths head, and the initials I. B., and the 
motto, " Memento mori." (See the woodcuts.) 





These particulars I communicated to the late Dr. Southey, 
shortly after his " Life of Bunyan" appeared*, and sent him the 
drawing of the Bridge and Gate House, and an impression of the 
the seal ; who, in reply by letter, dated Keswick, 29th January 
1831, said, — " Whenever the life of Bunyan shall be reprinted, 
I will take care to avail myself of the particulars which you have 
thus kindly communicated, and publicly acknowledge your kind- 
ness. I had seen" a view of the Gate House on Bedford Bridge, 
and it should have been engraved for the " Life," if Mr. Major, the 
publisher, had not found reason to conclude that Bunyan was not 
imprisoned there, but in the town itself." 

The above-mentioned doubt relative to the place of imprison- 
ment, induced me to write another letter to Mrs. Williams, who, 
on the 13th May, 1831, replied as follows : — 

" Dear Sir, — I have just received a communication from Bed- 

* The work is entitled " The Pilgrim's Progress, with a life of John 
Bunyan, by Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D., Poet Laureate, &c. &c. &c." 

P 



210 

ford about Bunyan, which I think will convince Dr. Southey that 
Bunyan was certainly confined in the Gate House of that town. 

" The communication is from the Rev. Mr. Hilyard, the pre- 
sent pastor of the chapel Bunyan was in the constant habit of 
attending. 

" There is in this Meeting House a curious old chair, which is 
called Bunyan 's chair." 

The following is the substance of Mr. Hilyard 's letter : — 

" I imagine there exists no doubt as to Bunyan 's having been 
imprisoned both in the town and county gaols. The former 
(called the Gate-house) he was certainly in, because tradition is 
so strong on that point. I remember hearing my old tutor, Mr. 
Bull, who died many years ago, at the age of eighty, say that he 
never went over Bedford Bridge without taking off his hat in 
honour of the place of imprisonment of that good and great man. 
He was certainly imprisoned in the county gaol, because it was 
for preaching at Pollux Hill that he was punished ; consequently, 
it was by a county magistrate that he was committed, and the 
county magistrates have no power to commit to the town gaol. 
His imprisonment lasted twelve years, probably by two commit- 
ments. He was leniently treated by the jailer, who allowed him 
at times to absent himself from the gaol. He often attended 
service at our meeting whilst a prisoner, as the church books of 
our Society, in the possession of me (the pastor of the congrega- 
tion) testify. Bunyan sometimes staid out all night at the re- 
quest of the jailer, who did not want to let him in at a late hour. 
One night, however, Bunyan returned at an early hour, requesting 
to be let in. ' Why, how now,' quoth the jailer, ' what ails you, 
why could you not have staid out all night ? ' Bunyan requested 
again to be let in, saying he had an impression of evil on his 
mind, and that he could not stay away from the gaol all night, 
whereupon he was let in. His prescience was manifested, for, 
before day-break next morning, came commissioners down from 
London from the State Council, to inquire if all the prisoners, 
and especially Bunyan, were safe, and if they had slept within 
the walls that night. Upon this issue of the matter, the jailer 
said that henceforth Bunyan should come and go as he pleased, 



211 

for that he and his God knew more of the matter than his friends 
could for him. One evening, Bunyan coming at dark through a 
lane, where he was seized by officers of justice in search of him, 
he called out, as they handled him roughly, * Why, the devil must 
be in the fellows.' On hearing this they let him go, saying, ' This 
cannot be the man we are in pursuit of.' I had this anecdote 
from Mr. Belsham, the historian." 

Upon my sending a copy of the above letter to Dr. Southey, he 
wrote the following reply, dated Keswick, 3rd August, 1831. 

" Sir, — I am much obliged to you for the information concern- 
ing Bunyan, which you have been so kind as to communicate. 
The proof respecting the Gate House is decisive ; and I am very 
sorry that, owing to a mispersuasion on this point, a view was 
not given in the late edition. 

" The anecdote of Bunyan 's returning to prison when he was 
not expected there, has been published ; and I cannot now be 
certain whether I did not see it till too late, or overlooked it, or 
omitted it because my narrative had already extended far beyond 
the limits that were intended. The other anecdote is new to me, 
and whenever I revise the memoir for another edition, or for 
posthumous publication, when my works of this kind may be 
collected, I will make use of it, and of the other facts with which 
you have obligingly furnished me." 

I also saw Mr. Major, relative to the doubt which he had raised, 
who then told me the only ground he had for such opinion was, 
because some author, then living, said Bunyan was imprisoned in 
Bedford Gaol, therefore he presumed it was not in the Gate- 
house ; but he admitted that the finding of the ring in the ruins 
of the latter, was strong presumptive evidence of its having been 
the place of incarceration. 

In conclusion, I must add that I feel much pleasure in being 
able to publish these interesting accounts, because they tend to 
elucidate some points in the biography of the prince of allegorists *. 

Since the above was written, I have seen a curious document 

* Several papers appeared in the " Gentleman's Magazine" for September, 
October, and November, 1843, and May and July, 1844, relative to the early 
editions of tbe " Pilgrim's Progress," in which the writer hereof took a part. 



212 

relative to Bunyan, in the Leicester Museum, where it was lately 
deposited. It previously was filed upon a string among the 
Town Hall papers. It bears date in 1672, being the year in 
which he was liberated from prison. It is noticed in the " His- 
tory of Leicester," by Mr. James Thompson, published in 1849, 
p. 430, as follows : — 

" In the month of October, 1672, the celebrated John Bunyan 
visited Leicester, for the purpose, apparently, of preaching to the 
Society of Baptists. He produced his licence* before the mayor 
and justices f. A declaration of indulgence, for suspending the 
penal laws against Dissenters, had been published in the early 
part of the year, and it was probably under the protection of this 
that Bunyan made a circuit of the country. In the March fol- 
lowing, the King, at the instigation of the two houses of Parlia- 
ment, promised to retract his declaration." 

ANKERDINE HILL AND OSEBURY ROCK. 

Ankerdine Hill was formerly called Ancredhani J, and now 
Ankerden or Ankerdine. The intermediate space between it and 
Old Storage is filled up with a chain called the Suckley and Hall 
House Hills. The scenery from Ankerdine Hill is very fine, 
and much enriched by the beautiful meanderings of the Teme. 
It is situated in the chapelry of Dodenham, in the parish of 
Knightwick. At the south end of the Hill the Teme passes, 
and on the opposite side of the river there is a remarkable con- 

* " The following is a copy of it — the original is among the Hall papers : — 
' John Bunnyon's license beares date the ninth day of May, 1672, to teach as 
a«ongregationall p'son, being of that p'swasion, in the house of Josias Boughead, 
in the towne of Bedford, or in any other place, rooine, or house, licensed by 
his Ma tie - 

" ' Memord. — The said Bunnyon shewed his license to Mr. Mayor, Mr. 
Overing, Mr. Freeman, and Mr. Browne being there p'sent, the 6th day of 
October, 1672, being Sunday.' " 

+ " The house in which, according to tradition, he preached, is still stand- 
ing nearly opposite to St. Nicholas's Church, and was for many years tenanted 
by a respectable family named Coltman." 

J Vide Nash's " History," Vol. ii., p. 68. 



213 

glomerate, vulgarly called Rosebury or Rosemary Rock, the real 
name of it being Osebury or Oseberrow*. This in the Ordnance 
Map is by mistake called Woodbury Rock 

WHITBOURNE. 

In Duncumb's " History of Herefordshire," Vol. L, p. 236, it 
is said that " within Whitbourne Court Park was a Roman in- 
trenchmentf, and divided from it by a meadow and valley, were 
the lines of a circular British camp, but no vestiges remain of 
either. The latter, perhaps, formed, with Thornbury, &c, a 
chain of intrenchments which extended northward from Bran- 
gonium (Worcester) towards the country of the Ordovices, and 
were successively defended by Caractacus, who is supposed to have 
kept the Romans in check for a considerable time in these parts 
after they had taken Brangonium." 

" Part of the Park is a beautiful remnant of an amphitheatre, 
and is supposed to have been a vineyard." 

THE BERROW PULL. 

The ancient name of this noble elevation, which lies in the 
parish of Martley, no doubt was either Burrow]:, which in the 
Saxon signifies a place fenced or fortified, or Barrow §, meaning 
an ancient place of sepulture, but most probably the former. It 
is of a fine oval form, and although a natural hill, its sides have 
evidently been artificially rounded into their present shape. 
There are two lines of intrenchment round the brow of the hill, 
which show it to be the site of an ancient camp. These trenches 
I first noticed in the year 1835, and they are still perfect in 
some parts, particularly at the north and south ends of the oval. 
In length the camp is about four hundred yards, and one hundred 
and ninety yards wide. Dr. Nash does not appear to have noticed 
the camp or the hill in his History of the county. The hill in 
its general shape resembles what is called a broad barrow. 

* Vide further mention of this place in the chapter on Folk-lore, 
t MSS. Silas Taylor, Bibl. Harl. 

I The Saxons generally applied this term to those places which had been 
fortified by tbeir predecessors. 

§ From " birighe," (Saxon) to hide or bury. 



314 

WOODBURY HILL. 

The name of this hill is probably derived from the Saxon 
" Wude Byrig," the dwelling in the wood*, and refers to the 
camp there. It is vulgarly called Howbury or Oubury Hillf. 
Dr. Nash, in speaking of it, says : "In the parish of Great 
Witley, the river Teme passeth under Woodbury Hill, remark- 
able for an old intrenchment on the top, commonly called Owen 
Glyndwr's camp J, but which probably is of more remote antiquity. " 
" The top of the bank on Woodbury hill contains twenty-six acres 
two roods and twenty-seven perches, and if the dimensions be 
extended to the centre of the ditch, it would measure at least two 
acres more. This hill is distant from Wassal Camp, in the 
parish of Kidderminster, about eight miles, and from Kenvaur 
Edge about eleven §." A plan of this camp, which is of a rather 
triangular shape, is given by Dr. Nash||. A way passes through 
it from north to south. 

ABBERLEY HILL. 

It is said that this hill was formerly called AbbotsleylT. In 
" Domesday Book" the name is written Edboldelege. 

With respect to the etymology of the word ley, Sir William 
Dugdale, speaking of the etymology of Arley in Warwickshire, 
says " it is very often used for terminating the names of several 
villages. If we ascend to the British for its original, we shall 
find He in that language to be the same with locus in Latin ; but 
if to the Saxon ley, there signifieth ground untilled**." 

* See " Gent's Magazine," Nov. 1840, p. 512. 

+ There are places called Howbury Meadow and Little Howbury in Suckley, 
and Woodbury in Upton Warren. 

\ Vide a very interesting account of this chieftain in the " Analyst Quarterly 
Journal" for March, 1835, Vol. ii., No. 8, p. 73, entitled " Kenchurch Court, 
Herefordshire," by the late Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, K. H. 

§ Vide Vol. ii., p. 465. 

|| Also see the Ordnance Map. 

^[ See Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary," also the " Rambler in Worces- 
tershire," published in 1851, p. 162. The prefix Ab may be a contraction of 
Abbot, as Habbe Lench, or Hob Lench, is of Abbot's Lench. It is called Hab- 
leah in the " Codex Dip.," No. 514. 

** Vide Nash's " History," Vol. ii-, Appendix, p. 1. 



215 

Dr. Nash, in his account of Woodbury Hill, states that he 
never could find any marks of intrenchments on Abberley Hill. 
Both these elevations are said to be nine hundred feet above the 
level of the sea. There is a parish called Abberton on the east 
side of the county ; and a place called Aberold was on the Anglo- 
Saxon boundaries of Crombe*. There also is Habberley in 
Shropshire. 

In Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary," published in 1848, it 
is stated that " on Abberley Hill, in the midst of a thickly planted 
wood, stands an oak, said to have been a sapling from the oak- 
tree under which St. Augustine in the sixth century invited the 
Welsh bishops to a conference, as recorded by Milner in his 
' Church History.' The parent tree was afterwards consumed by 
firef." 

* See Heming's " Cartulary," Vol. ii., p. 348, and Nash's " History," Vol. 
ii., Appendix, p. 46. Aber, in the British tongue, is a place where one river 
falls into another, or into the sea, and in the Welsh signifies every place where 
water meets with water. Aber, or Haber, in the Phoenician, has also the same 
signification. See " Britannia Antiqua," by Aylett Sammes, p. 68. Therefore 
it is possible that some of the above-mentioned places may be so derived. 

+ Vide the remarks on St. Augustine's Oak in the accounts of Old Storage 
and Alfrick, pp. 901, 205, &c. 



21fi 



$tn 9. 



CRUCKBARROW HILL, IN WHITTINGTON, 

This fine conical elevation is most probably an ancient British 
broad barrow. It is situated about two miles and a half south- 
east of the city of Worcester, in the hamlet of Whittingtou *, in 
the parish of St. Peter. It was in all likelihood used by the 
Romans as a signal station, as it overlooks Worcester, and the 
Roman camp at Kempsey, and is nearly opposite to Powickf: a 
few Roman coins are said to have been found here. In shape it 
is elliptical, and measures 512 yards round, within the ring fence 
at the base, and about 180 yards round the crown J. It is com- 
monly said to contain about six acres of land ; but, measured 
horizontally within the ring fence, it contains 4a. 0e. 18p. The 
elevation is considerable. I consider this was partly a natural 
hill, but it owes its extreme regularity of contour to artificial 
means. The sides, which are sloped as evenly as a sugar loaf, 
are covered with a fine green turf. The ends of the oval stand 
east and west. According to the measurements which I have 
made, Cruckbarrow Hill is rather larger than Silbury Hill, in 
Wiltshire. Silbury Hill is said to be perfectly artificial, but 
Cruckbarrow only partially so. 

Respecting the etymology of the word Cruckbarrow or Crook- 
berrow, I have collected the following interesting facts : — 

In a communication made by Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart., to 

* See in the account of Astwood, as to this place probably having been one 
of the Anglo-Saxon marks. 

+ At all which places Roman relics have been found. 

I See also the " Strangers' Guide to Worcester," by Ambrose Florence, 
p. 117. 



217 

the Royal Society, on the 11th June, 1831, relative to the 
Saxon derivation of various names, is the following : — 

" Segesberewe, in Worcestershire, the burial place of Segga. 
Crockberewe „ „ ,, Croc." 

Now, in " Domesday Book," there are certainly entered as 
tenants in capite, Croch or Crock, venator of Hants ; also of his 
son Rainaldus Croch ; and likewise Croc of Wilts : but this of 
itself is no proof that Cruckbarrow Hill, in Whittington, took its 
designation from a person named Croc. We meet with various 
other places named Crookberrow in quite a distant part of 
Worcestershire : for instance, in the parish of Pendock there are 
two pastures adjoining each other bearing that name, situated 
near Pendock village, on the roadside leading from Ledbury to 
Tewkesbury; adjoining thereto, in the Berrow, there are two 
pieces of land called Crookberrow, and another named Lower 
Crookberrow. In addition to this I was informed by the late 
Edward Ingram, Esq., of The White Ladies, that, in the oldest 
title-deeds of his brother relative to Cruckbarrow Hill, the name 
is spelt Crugbarrow. Now, as the word Crug in ancient British 
and Welsh, and Cruach in Irish signifies a hill or heap, the name 
Crugbarrow appears to prove that the elevation in question was 
an ancient British hill barrow. It does not, however, follow 
that in all cases the word " Crug" as connected with " barrow" 
meant a natural hill or heap, it no doubt included artificial 
mounds also, which in time became removed, without any tradi- 
tion of them being left ; as, for instance, those pieces of land 
called Crookberrow in Pendock, and in the Berrow. 

The name is spelled Crokbarrowe in an Inquisition in the 
Tower of London, temp. Henry VI. (vide Nash, Vol. ii., 
App. lxxx,) ; Cruckberew in a grant, 3rd Edward III. ; and 
Crokeborrow in the first register of the Dean and Chapter of 
Worcester, folio 84. 

There is a mountain called Cruckfalla in Ireland, Co. Donegal, 
Prov. Ulster, five miles north of Brinlach ; Cruckton, a township 
in the parish of Pontesbury, hund. of Ford, Co. Salop ; and 
Cruggion, a township, in the parish of Alberbury, Co. Montgomery, 



218 

The name Pendoc is spelled various ways : Pendock, Pendoke, 
Penedoc, and Peonedoc. It is called Peonedoc in some Saxon 
charters*, and Penedoc and Peonedoc in " Domesday Book." 
The word Pen is of Phoenician extraction, and signifies head or 
eminence, as Penmaen Mawr in Wales. It is changed into Ben 
in Scotland, as Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis. 

There are Penhills in Inkberrow, Penhill in Lulsley, Penfieldf 
and Pen Copse in Mathon, and Pendock J Meadow in the hamlet 
of Orleton in Eastham. 

Many of the places in or about Pendock and the Berrow are 
called either by British or Saxon names: for instance, Crook- 
berrow ; and in the Berrow, Portridge, Little Portridge, Portnells, 
the Pendock Port-way, Wain Street, Keysend Street, and 
Elsborough. Adjoining the Berrow is Rid Marley D'Abitot, 
which, in the Anglo-Saxon times, was called Reodemsereleah and 
Rydemsereleah ; and in " Domesday Book, " Redmerleie or 
Ridmerlege. As Byd in ancient British and Phoenician signifies 
a ford, it is probable that in the British times a ford existed there 
over the river Ledden ; in support of this idea, we may remark, 
that there was a place there called by the Anglo-Saxons, Salter's 
Ford, as appears by Heming's " Cartulary," p. 351. 

Adjoining the Berrow and Rid Marley on the south-west of the 
Malvern Chain, is a parish called Bromsberrow, in Gloucestershire. 
At this place there is a remarkable tumulus called Conygree 
Hill; while, between Eastnor and the Herefordshire Beacon 
Camp, is the Ridgeway. In Eldersfield there are Gadbury Banks 
and Tutshill : Gadbury Hill, in Castle Morton ; and Sarnhill, in 
Bushley. These various places will be found particularly 
described under their respective heads. 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 308, 308 App. Vol. iii.; 514 and 514 App. Vol. vi.; 
and Vol. iii., 538. 

+ It is possible that some of these places obtained their names from sheep 
or cattle having been penned there. The Anglo-Saxon word Pennan means 
a small enclosure. 

I There are several places called by the name of Doc in Anglo-Saxon 
charters, set forth in the " Codex Dip. ;" as, Doccenaford, No. 1093 ; 1175 Doccen- 
graf, No. 1141; Doccyng, No. 759, (Docking in Norfolk). The word Docca 
in Anglo-Saxon means the dock wood. 



219 

In regard to the names Barrow, Burrow, and Berrow, we must 
remark that the last is a corruption of the two former. As the 
Saxons called the British and Roman burial places by the name 
of Barrow, and the British aud Roman fortified places by that of 
Burgh, or Burrow, therefore, whenever the word Berrow is met 
with as the name of any place, the character of that place must 
be considered, in order to determine whether Barrow or Burrow 
is intended. 

The Roman port (or military) way, called " The Pendock 
Portway," in the Berrow, clearly proves that Pendock was 
occupied by the Romans. This is but one instance out of 
innumerable others, which goes to show that the Romans gene- 
rally located themselves in ancient British stations. 

In the first edition of this work, I suggested that the name 
Cruckbarrow was derived from " Cuclopes " and "Barrow;" 
the former term meaning a high place of heathen worship* ; but, 
under all the circumstances, the word " Crug " appears to be 
the more certain etymology. It is commonly called Crookberrow 
Hill ; and this error, no doubt, arose from the circumstance of its 
not being generally known that the term " Crug " means a hill, 
and therefore the word " hill " was added to it. 

Between one and two miles from Cruckbarrow Hill, there 
is a conical hill in Spetchley (on the boundary of Cudley, 
or Cutley, in St. Martin's and Warndon), which now goes 
by the name of the Round Hill, but was called Cuggan Hillf 
by the Anglo-Saxons, as attested by the Saxon boundaries of 
Cudley (Heming's " Cartulary," p. 358 ; Nash's " History," 
Vol ii., App., p. 55). Now, Cuggan Hill most probably means 
Cruggan J Hill ; and, if so, we have the same repetition as in the 
name of Cruckbarrow Hill, which proves, first, that the Saxons 
called the Spetchley Hill by its ancient British name ; and 
secondly, that they did not generally understand the meaning of 
that name, and therefore added the word " hill " to it. 

* Bryant, Vol. i., p. 491, &c. 

+ See the accounts of the Round Hill, in Spetchley, — Toot Hills, — and the 
general account of Spetchley. 

I See p. 217, as to Cruggion, Co. Montgomery. 



220 

These curious facts are additional links in the chain of 
evidence that Cruckbarrow Hill is an ancient British barrow, and 
also that the etymology of the name is partly British. 

It is thus described by Dr. Nash : — " Cruckbarrow Hill, so 
called from ' Crug,' in British signifying a hill, and ' Barrow,' 
which word often signifies a place fortified by the Romans, and 
was used in after ages for a burial ground, or other purposes. It 
may, therefore, signify the hill where was a barrow. It consists 
of about six acres, of an oval form, and considerable height. 
Could it be a mount from whence the laws and customs of 
Oswaldeslawe were promulgated ?" 



OSWALDSLOW. 

In answer to the above question of Dr. Nash, I have to 
observe that there was, in the time of the Anglo-Saxons, on the 
boundary of Wolverton, in Stoulton*, a place called Oswaldslow, 
as appears byHeming's " Cartulary," pp. 359, 360 ; and Nash's 
" History," Vol. ii., App. 56. This, therefore, was most probably 
the place where the laws and customs of the hundred of Oswald- 
slow were promulgated. The following is an English version of 
this boundary. 

These are the land boundaries of Wolverton : — first, from 
Lusthorn to White Dale ; from White Dale to Yrse f ; from 
Yrse thence it cometh to Baldrick's Mere, to the Foul Brook ; 
From the Foul Brook thence it cometh to the headland, then 
from the headland it shooteth athwart over the port- way ; from 
the port- way to the Dale : from the Dale up by the Fen ; from 
the Fen to the North Ditch, along the ditch, to Copney ; from 
Copney to the middle of Broad Moor, to Fuet's Well ; from Fuet's 
Well thence it cometh to Ramsden ; along Ramsden thence to 
the street ; along the street thence it cometh to Oswaldslow ; 

* See Stoulton, Iter XVIII. f See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 570, 612. 



221 

from Oswaldslow along the Salt Street, to Foul-mere ; from 
Foul-mere again to Lusthorn *. 

The above-mentioned Salt Road, or Street, most probably was 
part of what I have hereafter called " The Lower Deviation 
Salt Way," which ran in that direction from Droitwich to 
Ashton-under-Hill, &c. ; and I mention this to show that, as 
Oswaldslow lay by this ancient British road, it was remarkably 
well situated for the advantage of recourse. 

The hundred of Oswaldslow was so called in honour of 
Bishop Oswald, at whose request King Edgar granted it an 
advantageous charter f. 

There is a hill which now goes by the name of Low Hill, 
situated partly in White Ladies Aston, and partly in Stoulton, 
on the boundary of Wolverton ; and this, I presume, is what was 
formerly called Oswaldslow. The Worcester and Evesham 
turnpike-road runs over it, and divides the two parishes in that 
part. Chambers, in his " Biographical Illustrations of Worces- 
tershire!," states that Edgar granted " considerable privileges to 
the manors possessed by the Bishop and Church of Worcester, 
uniting them all, viz., 300 hides of land; and for the most part 
lying contiguous in one hundred, whose court was appointed to 
be held under the Bishop, at a place about four miles to the east 
of Worcester, called in memory of the Bishop, Oswaldeslawe, or 
Oswald's Mount §. This was creating a small palatinate in the 
county, exempt from all jurisdiction of the civil magistrate." 

This description of Oswald's Mount exactly corresponds with 
the situation of Low Hill, or Oswaldslow, as mentioned in 
Heming's " Cartulary ;" and the combined facts appear to be 
decisive that Low Hill is Oswaldslow. 



* Also see " Codex Dip.," Oswald's Charter, No. 612, dated 977. 

+ Dated 964. See Nash, Vol. i., Introduction, 61 ; and " Codex Dip.," 
No. 514, Vol. ii., and 514 App., Vol. vi. ; and Heming's " Cartulary," p. 517. 
The authenticity of this charter is doubted. 

X Published 1820, p. 6. 

§ " Between Spetchley and Wolverton." 



33d 



THE ROUND HILL IN SPETCHLEY. 

There is a circular elevation in this parish, called " The Round 
Hill," situate about two miles north-east of Cruckbarrow, and 
three miles from Worcester, near the seat of the Spetchley branch 
of the ancient family of the Berkeleys. It is partly surrounded 
by a trench, and is in view of Cruckbarrow Hill ; its shape is of 
that called the Cone Barrow. It was formerly called Cuggan 
Hill. Some further remarks on it will be found under the heads 
of Cruckbarrow and Toot Hills. 

PERRY WOOD, OR PIRIE WOOD. 

The ancient trench road, which I have before noticed as lying 
in the meadow called King's Hill*, at the north end of Perry 
Woodf, is of considerable depth; its east end runs in shape like 
the letter Y, with the foot pointing towards Worcester, one arm 
towards Cruckbarrow, and the other towards Elbury Hill. There 
is also a rather deep cut in the next piece of ground northward, 
called the Fox-pit Field J, and another just within the south end 
of Perry Wood, but I cannot say whether these two last are 
artificial or not. 

Not far from the last-mentioned spot, behind Woodside House, 
there is a rather deep hollow in Perry Wood, where, according to 
tradition, Cromwell signed a contract with the devil for seven 
years' reign §. 

Southward of Perry Wood and Lark Hill, near Battenhall Lane, 
there is a place called Camp Ground, the western side of which is 
crossed by a trench. This was probably one of the outposts of 
the Battle of Worcester. In the " Strangers Guide to Worces- 
ter, 1 ' by Ambrose Florence, the author speaks of the intrench- 

* See title " Salwarp," p. 110. 

+ There is a place called Perry Wood, in Pirton. 

j Between these parts and Worcester there is the site of a place which was 
called Perry Court; nothing, however, hut the trenches of the moat remain. 

§ See Dodsley's humorous account of it in his " Chronicles of the Kings 
of England," published 1799. 



223 

ments at Lepard Hill*, Ronk's Wood, and Perry Wood. These 
hills are in a line from Cruckbarrow to Elbury Hill, and lie in 
St. Martin's parish. The trenches, or cross-cuts on Lepard 
Hill and Ronk's Wood were most probably made or altered in 
Cromwell's time, as his army lay in those parts before the great 
battle. 

A gauntlet sword was, a few years back, presented to the Wor- 
cestershire Museum, stated to have been found in the bank of an 
old hedge situated on the west side of Lepard Hill, in a meadow 
called Pike Field. It is long and two-edged, and was, as appears 
by the shape of the handle, made for thrusting only. This sword 
is evidently of Indian manufacture. Similar ones are used by 
the Mahrattas to this day. There are some of them in the Tower 
of London. If the sword in question really was found as above 
stated, and was used at the Battle of Worcester, it must have 
been obtained from some collection, as that species of weapon is 
not described among the English war implements of that or any 
other period. 

TROTSHILL. 

At a short distance eastward from Elbury Hill, there is a farm 
in Warndon, commonly called Trotshill, or Troshill. It is named 
Tootshill in Isaac Taylor's Map of Worcestershire, published in 
1772, and in Carey's largest Atlas of Worcestershire, published 
in 1810; Trotswell, in Nash's " History," and Trotshall in the 
Ordnance Map. 

There is a parish called Trotescliffe, Totesclivef, or Trosley, 
on the Pilgrim's Road, near Wrotham, in Kent. Between these 
latter places human bones have been found, buried in chalk, 
supposed to be ancient British remains J. 

ELBURY HILL. 

This hill was probably named from El, and Bury or Burrow. 

* Otherwise Lypiard, Lappaworthin, or Lappeworth. 

t " Domesday Book." 

{ See " Gentleman's Magazine" for August, 1841. 



224 

Mr. Bryant says, that El, Al, HX, sometimes expressed Eli, was the 
name of the true God ; But with the Zabians it signified the Sun ; 
whence also the Greek "HXcos, and 'Hikios. That El and Elion 
were titles by which the people of Canaan distinguished their chief 
deity. That El was particularly invoked by the eastern nations 
when they made an attack in battle ; for at such time they used to 
cry out El-El and Al-Al, which Mahomet could not well bring his 
proselytes to leave off, and therefore he changed it to Allah, which 
the Turks at this day make use of when they shout in joining 
battle ; and that such invocation was not unknown to the Greeks *. 

Elbury Hill lies about a mile and a half to the east of Worces- 
ter, in the parish of Claines ; the summit contains the site of an 
oblong square camp — in fact, all the upper part of the hill is of 
that shape. The sides of the hill are very regularly sloped, and 
the corners beautifully rounded. The camp appears to be about 
two hundred yards long on the northern side, one hundred on the 
eastern, one hundred on the southern, and one hundred and fifty 
on the western side. Within these few years it has been planted 
with gorse. This camp completely overlooked, and would defend 
the city, and was an excellent signal station to communicate with 
Ostorius's supposed fort on the west, Tutnall on the north, Cruck- 
barrow on the south, and the Round Hill at Spetchley on the east. 

Although the name of this hill is most probably of much greater 
antiquity than the time of the Romans, yet it is very likely that 
it was occupied by them as an outwork from the city of Worcester, 
for a Roman military way called Portfield's Road, ran from the 
city to the hill f , and about two miles eastward of it a jar contain- 
ing Roman coins was found at Bredicot j\ 

* Bryant, Vol. i., pp. 13, 14, 15, 16 ; and in page 95 he says, " Caph, 
Cap, and Cephas signify a rock, and also any promontory or headland. As 
temples used to be built upon eminences of this sort, we find this word often 
compounded with the titles of the deity there worshipped, as Caph-El, Caph- 
El-On," &c. Now it is rather singular that the peasantry of Worcestershire 
call any high or monstrous-looking animal or thing a great Caph-El, or Kefel, 
to this day. They also call any poor, slow, stupid, and ugly animal a Dumel. 
There is a field called Dummel in Arley, in Warwickshire. 

t See pp. 9, 23. 

J See p. 95. 



225 

This hill, although it has been but very little noticed, was 
most probably the keystone of all the ancient bulwarks of the 
town and its vicinity. A large fire on this central elevation would 
be seen at almost every part of the country, and it was probably 
one of the chief of the " high places" for druidical worship. On 
the eastern side of the hill there is a spring of water, by which 
its occupants were probably supplied. 

Until within the last few years a wood ran up to one side of 
the hill. In the British time the camp was most probably sur- 
rounded by a forest, like Gadbury Banks, before described. 
Elbury Hill is called Ellbury Wood in Isaac Taylor's map of 1772, 
Helbury Hill, in the "Stranger's Guide to Worcester*," and like- 
wise in the " Worcester Miscellany f," and Elbury Hill J in the 
Ordnance Map. 

There was, in the Anglo-Saxon times, a place called Ellesbeorh 
and Hallesburg (Ellesborough) near Twyford and Evesham on 
the Avon §; and an idea has been entertained that Ellesbeorh 
(Ellbury) means Oldbury or " Ancient Town," but the Anglo- 
Saxon charters have a distinct name for the latter places, 
such as Ealdanburh (Aldbury) Worcestershire, Ealdandic (Old 
Dike), &c.|| 

There are Ellbatch Coppice in Broadwas ; Ellbatch Wood on 
the north-west side of Woodbury Hill ; Ellwood east of Clent ; 
Ellbatch Orchard, and Far and Near Ellbatch Band in Abberley ; 
Upper and Lower Ellbatch Coppice and Ell Meadow in Hartle- 
bury ; Elsborough in the Berrow ; Ell Bank Piece in Northfield ; 
Ell Wood in Romsley, in Hales Owen ; and Allsborough HillH near 
Pershore. There also are Ellbarrow near Stonehenge in Wilt- 
shire, Ellwall in the parish of Goodrich, Co. Hereford, and Upper, 
Far, and Lower Elkin** in Solihull, Co. Warwick. 

* Under the name of Ambrose Florence, published 1828, pp. 130, 131. 
t Published 1829, Vol. i., No. 2, p. 68. 

{ " Domesday Book" mentions Elburgelega in Herefordshire. 
§ See " Codex Dip.," No. 1368 and 61, 61 App., Vol. iii. 
|| Ibid., No. 570, 422, 422 App., Vol. iii. 

«|[ Most probably meaning Elsburrow Hill. — See the " Fairy Mythology." 
** The names "Elkin," or little gods, or of kin to the gods, appear to con- 

Q 



226 

ASTWOOD 

Is a hamlet or tithing in the parish of Claines, adjoining to Elbury 
Hill. As there are a great many places in this count}'' that have names 
commencing with Ast, an inquiry into the etymology of the prefix 
does not seem altogether uncalled for. Bryant and others would trace 
the derivation to the Greek earia, and Latin vesta, a word signify- 
ing fire or sacred hearth ; but we shall probably be more correct in 
referring it to the Saxon " east," the east ; the prefix indicating that 
such places lie eastward of some more important locality. To 
this conclusion we are drawn by the analogy of other names : for 
instance, on the north side of Worcester is a place called North- 
wick ; on the south side Southbury or Sidbury ; Westwood* lies 
west of Droitwich ; Aston, Easton, or Eston Episcopi (White 
Ladies' Aston) is about four miles east of Worcester, and Astley, 
Eslei, Estley, Asteleye, or ^Estleye, lies on the east side of Abber- 
ley Hill. It must, however, be remarked that Astwood, the place 
in question, is not east, but N.N.E. of Worcester, and N.NW. 
of Elbury Hill ; and this is an instance, like the following, of a 
place compounded with Ast or Est, not appearing to be east of 
any neighbouring place of consequence ; namely, Aston or Eston f 
township, in the parish of Blockley ; Ast-Lench or East-Lench, in 
Church Lench ; Astwood on the north-east side of Droitwich, in 
Doderhill ; Astridge or Ashridge, in Powick ; Astwood Hill, in Ink- 
berrow ; Great Asthill, Little Asthill, and New Asthills, in Upton 
Warren ; Upper Aston in Knighton ; Astwood, on the west side of 
the Bidgeway, in Feckenham ; Aston Field in Bushock, Astley 
Ground in Beoley, Astmore Common in the Parish of Kempsey, 
Astwood in Hanbury, Estbury in Hallow, in Grimley, and the 
parish of Eastham (Estham in " Domesday Book"). 

nect our faiiy mythology with that which was more ancient. See the Folk-lore. 
And some other of the above names of places of small note, which have not 
the word "bury" or "borough" attached to them, may have been given in 
reference to the fairies. 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 574, as to Westwudu. 

+ It is called Eastun (Aston Magna) in the " Codex Dip.," No. 117. 
"Domesday Book" also notices Estun and E stone, in Worcestershire; and 
Heming's " Cartulary," p. 434, mentions Austan (Aston Parva), and Eastune, 
Eastun, and ^Estun, in p, 56, &c. 



227 

Still it is possible that the tithing of Astwood is indebted for 
its designation to the fact of its being east of North wick, which 
appears to have been the chief of the nine hamlets of which the 
parish of Gaines is composed, and is the only one of them men- 
tioned in " Domesday Book." The non-appearance, however, of 
any name in " Domesday" is no proof of its non-existence when 
that survey was made, as Anglo-Saxon charters and grants suf- 
ficiently testify. 

Having thus given preference to the more obvious etymology, 
it may, on the other hand, be remarked, that as x\stwood lies 
between those ancient places called Elbury Hill and Barrow Cop, 
is is just possible, if there really were any " sacred hearths " in 
this country, that the name may have come from " Ast," " Asta*," 
or " Estaf," which Bryant says signified fire, and also the deity 
of that element ; and that the Greeks expressed it 'Earla, and 
the Romans, Vesta. That " Esta " and " Asta " signified also 
a sacred hearth; and that, in early times, every district was 
divided according to the number of the sacred hearths, each of 
which constituted a community or parish. That the most common 
name was " Asta];." That these were places of general rendez- 
vous for people of the same community ; that here were kept up 
perpetual fires ; and that places of this sort were made use of for 
courts of judicature, where the laws of the country, 6i{u<TTe<;, were 
explained and enforced. Hence, Homer, speaking of a person 



* " Domesday Book " has Astenewic and Astune, in Yorkshire ; and 
Astenofre, in Herefordshire. 

f "Est " is a prefix to many names in foreign parts. 

I There was, in Northamptonshire, in the Anglo-Saxon times, a place 
called Asctun (Ashton). See " Codex Dip.," No. 575 ; and in a confirmation 
of that charter, No. 908, there is a place called Astun (Aston). Now, if these 
mean the same place, we appear to have a corruption of the name Asctun into 
Astun ; and it tends to raise a question, whether the general name Aston does 
not mean Ashton. There now are, however, several places called Ashton, and 
one called Aston-le-Walls, in Northamptonshire. Also, see what is before 
stated as to Astridge or Ashridge, in Powick. It is called Astridge in the 
Tithe Commutation ; but, in the " 23rd Further Report of the Commis- 
sioners for Inquiring concerning Charities,'' it is spelled Ashridge. 



228 

not worthy of the rights of society, calls him *A<f)pr)T(op, 
a@i/ju<TTO<;, ave<TTLO<$*. 

In this view of the case, the three names, Elbury Hill, Astwood, 
and Barrow Cop, designate all that an ancient community required, 
namely, a sacred altar, or place of worship of the god El, or the 
sun; a sacred hearth; and a place of sepulture f. 

The Saxons possibly may have converted some of these sacred 
hearths — if there really were any in this country — into " marks " 
(which afterwards became parishes, tithings, and hundreds) ; and 
the names of such small places often remained unchanged. 

Mr. Kemble, in his " Saxons in England J," has given a very 
interesting list of patronymical names, which he believes to be 
those of ancient marks §. The following, in Worcestershire, are 
taken from Anglo-Saxon charters : — 



Birlingas 






" Codex Dip.," No. 570 


Grundlingas . . 






„ 548 


Heallingas 






» 209 


Oddingas 






,, 209 


Dristlingas . 






n 570 


Crohhseme 






„ 507 


Hinhaeme 






.1 ^64 


Monninghseme 






„ 645 


Secghaeme 






» 764 


Dornhaeme 






» 511 


Beonotsetan . 






>. ^66 


Bradsetan 






>. 289 


Grimsetan 






„ 561 


Incsetan . . 






„ 511 


Mosetan . . 






„ 266 


Wreocensetan 






» 277 


ant's " Ancient Mytl 


10I0 


gy/' 


Vol. i., published 1774, pp. 62, 



+ See a similar case in the account of Tan Wood, Astwood Hill, and 
Barrow Hill, in Chaddesley Corbet, p. 126. 

+ Vol. i., p. 449, &c. 

§ As to the transition of the ancient mark courts into lords' courts, see 
pp. 483,484, 485, 486, of the work. Also see Alfrick,p. 203, relative to these 
subdivisions. 



229 

And among the names inferred from the actual local names in 
England, at the present day, the following are in Worcestershire : — 

Aldingas Aldington (in Badsey) 

Berringas Berrington (in Tenbury) 

Birlingas Birlingham 

Deorlingas Darlingscott (in Tredington) 

Dodingas Doddingtree 

Eastingas Eastington 

Ecgingas Eckington 

Heorfingas Harvington 

Hudingas Huddington (or Hodington) 

Oddingas Oddingley 

Taedingas Teddington (in Overbury) 

Tidmingas Tidmington 

Whittingas Whittington* (in the Parish of St. Peter) 

In Vol. ii., p. 424, Mr. Kemble says : — " In all likelihood 
every mark had its religious establishment ; its fanum, delubrum, 
or sacellum, as the Latin authors call them ; its hearh, as the 
Anglo-Saxon no doubt designated themf; and further, that the 
priest, or priests, attached to these heathen churches had lands 
— perhaps free-will offerings, too — for their support." 

BAKKOW COP, IN PEKDESWELL. 

A remarkable bronze fragment of a tore, or ornament for the 
neck, which is in my possession, was found in 1840, about two 
feet deep in a gravel bed, at Perdeswell J, in the parish of Claines, 
within about two miles of Worcester. It is rather more than the 
third of a circle, and was probably broken in battle. It is eight 
inches long in the curve, and weighs half a pound. An iron rod 
runs through its centre, connecting the bronze pieces or ver- 

* It is worthy of remark, that Whittington, Huddington, Oddingley, and 
Astwood, lie in a circle within a few miles of each other. 

+ Besinga hearh, fanum Besingorum. — " Codex Dip.," No. 994. 

I See hereafter, title " Claines." There was a place, in the Anglo-Saxon 
times, called Pirdeswell (Pirdswell), Co. Wilts. — (See " Codex Dip.," No. 
355, 355 App., Vol. iii. 



230 

tebrae, which are twenty in number, and are curiously twisted 
and tooled. Between each piece there is a thick ring, shaped 
like a pulley, and the whole is fitted close together. The cir- 
cumference of the perfect tore must have been about eighteen 
inches. It is incrusted with a fine highly-polished patina. (See 
the copper-plate engraving, Plate 6.) 

There are three pieces of ground adjoining each other where 
this fragment was discovered, named Barrow Cop, Barrow Cop 
Field, and Barrow Cop Orchard*. This name tends to prove 
that the fragment is either ancient British or Roman-British. 
The field in which it was found is now called the Big Field, or 
the Ten Acres, and is situated opposite Perdeswell House, on the 
tongue of land which lies between the Birmingham and the Kid- 
derminster road. The gravel-pit abuts against the north-east 
corner of Barrow Cop Field. It is said that formerly several 
other fields, including the Big Field, were all one piece of land, 
and called Barrow Cop. The Saxon term " Cop " signifies the 
head, top, or mound. This goes to show that there was anciently 
a barrow at the spot in question ; but the spade and plough have 
been great levellers, and have much to answer for in this respect. 
Nevertheless, the spot is still the highest part between Tutnall 
and Worcester, and both are in view from it. The milling of the 
tore is much like that in the figure, No. 2, in Plate 50, of the 1 6th 
Vol. of the " Archseologia," therein described as found at Hag- 
bourn Hill, in Berks. The Perdeswell tore w T as exhibited to the 
Society of Antiquaries, in London, at their meeting of the 14th 
of December, 1843 ; and the above engraving of it is given in 
the " Archseologia," Vol. xxx., pp. 554, 555 ; where it is stated, 
that " the form of this singular ornament, when complete, may 
be ascertained, as it appears, by comparison with another example, 
discovered in Lancashire, in 1831, representations of which were 
presented to the Society by James Dearden, Esq.,F.S.A., of The 
Orchard, Rochdale. This latter ornament, which appears to be 
suited rather for an armilla than a collar, measures 5£ inches in 
diameter; its weight is lit). 4|oz. One-half of the circumference 

* See " Claines." 



231 

is composed of small engraved and twisted pieces, alternating 
with pulley-shaped rings, similar in fashion to the Worcestershire 
bronze ; the other half is of a square form, and ornamented with 
zig-zag patterns, deeply incised, and running lengthwise, like the 
decorations of early architectural mouldings*." 

The Perdeswell tore is described in a paper on the tore of the 
Celts, published in the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," 
Vol. iii., p. 34; and the Rochdale tore is likewise referred to. 
It is added, " that the British Celts were accustomed to wear 
similar decorations, is evident from the testimony of Herodian, 
that the Britons wore the teeth of the seal or walrus strung 
as beaded tores;" and the author of that article, in de- 
scribing beaded tores generally, in page 32, considers them of 
very early date, and says, " when a transition took place to a 
higher degree of civilization among the Celts, and the art of 
smelting metals became known, the stone weapons and ruder de- 
corations of those races seem to have been replaced by metallic 
ornaments, still preserving their original type." Now, if the 
ornament in question is of that early date, and not an imitation 
made in the Roman- British period, it probably contains one of 
the earliest applications of iron to be found, for, as before stated, 
the rod upon which the bronze vertebras are strung is of iron, and 
no doubt owed its preservation to being encased in bronze. 

The following extract, upon the subject of tores, from Richard 
of Cirencester may not be uninteresting here : — 

" The more wealthy inhabitants of South Britain were accus- 
tomed to ornament the middle finger of the left hand with a gold 
ring ; but a gold collar round the neck was the distinguishing- 
mark of eminence. Those of the northern regions, who were the 
indigenous inhabitants of the island from time immemorial, were 
almost wholly ignorant of the use of clothes, and surrounded their 
waists and necks, as Herodian reports, with iron rings, which they 
considered as ornaments and proofs of wealth." 

* Tores, something similar, may be seen in the " Archseologia," Vol. xxxi., 
App., p. 517, and Vol. xxxiv., p. 86. There is also a most curious gold tore, 
belonging to Her Majesty the Queen, engraved in the " Archaeologia," Vol. 
xxxiii., p. 176 ; but it is not of the pattern in question. 



232 

The tore, chain, or rather wreath, is frequently alluded to by 
the early British bards. 

" Yet in the battle of Arderydd I wore the golden torques." 

Merddvn Avellanan. 
" Four-and-twenty sons I have had, 
Wearing the golden wreath, leaders of armies." 

Llywarch Hen. 

" Of all who went to Cattraeth, wearing the golden tore or wreath." 

Aneurin. 

The same bard states, that in the battle Cattraeth were three 
hundred and sixty who wore the golden torques*. 

TUTNALL, TETNAL, ok TOOTENHILL; 
alias OAKFIELDS. 

This hill is in the parish of Claines, and lies about three miles 
north of Worcester. It overlooks Bevere and the northern side 
of the city, and would communicate by signals with the camp at 
Ombersley, Ostorius's supposed fort, and Elbury Hill. 

We have thus traversed this remarkable chain from Cruck- 
barrow Hill to Tutnall, and it appears almost impossible to 
believe that the names of the several links could have been given 
accidentally, and without reference to the manners and customs 
of the ancients, which they so admirably illustrate and confirm. 

We shall now proceed to a more detailed account of Toot Hills. 

TOOT HILLS. 

Toot Hill, in Lindridge, is an elevation situated near to the 
parish road-side at Doddenhill, and forming part of the estate of 
Sir Wm. Smith. The following are also in or upon the borders 
of the county: — Tutnall or Tootenhill, in Claines; Trotshill, 
Troshill, or Tootshillf Farm, in Warndon; Tutnal, Tutnal 

* See Giles' " Eichard of Cirencester," published 1848, p. 427. 

+ It is called Tootshill in Isaac Taylor's Map of 1772 ; but, as no par- 
ticular elevation now remains there, the tumulus must have been removed 
some time or other. — See pp. 217, 230, as to similar cases. 



233 

Mount, and Tutnal Piece, in Tardebig*; Tonthall [Tothebel] 
Cross f, in the parish of Bromsgrove ; Tutshill Common Field, 
and Little Tutshill, in Eldersfield ; Tutbatch, in Lower Sapey, — 
all in Worcestershire. There also are the Mythe Toot or Tute, 
near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire ; Tatnell Bridge, near Yatton 
in Herefordshire ; and Tatenhill and Tutbury in Staffordshire. 

"Domesday Book J" notices the above-mentioned place in 
Bromsgrove, called Tothehel, and describes it as terra regis. It 
also mentions Teotintune, in Worcestershire; Teteberie§, Tet- 
inton, and Toteham, in Gloucestershire ; Toteberie, Totehala, 
and Tote nhale[|, in Staffordshire; Tetisthorpe, in Herefordshire ; 
Tutenelle, in Somersetshire ; Toteham and Totehele, in Mid- 
dlesex ; Toteled, Co. York ; Totele, Cos. York and Lincoln ; and 
Totenais and Totescombe, in Devonshire. 

Dr. Thomas, in his " Survey of Worcester Cathedral," &c, 
notices in A. 18, Teottingtun, Tetintun, Taterington IF, or Tetyng- 
ton, near the river Cerent or Carent, which runs through Over- 
bury, Kemerton, and Ashchurch parishes into the Avon, near 
Tewkesbury, and states that King Offa gave five manses of land 
at Teottingtun-- to the Monastery at Breodunff. 

There is much contrariety of opinion as to the etymology of 
the name of the places in question ; some say it comes from the 
Saxon word " teotan," to look out, and others from the Celtic god 
Teutates. Bryant derives the name of such round hills from 
" Tith," and says, when towers were situated on eminences 
fashioned very round, they were by the Amonians 1% called Tith, 



* Tutnal and Cobley were added to Worcestershire by the Reform Bill. 

+ See Nash, Vol. i., p. 150. 

+ Vol. i., p. 172a. 

§ It is called Tetteburi in the " Codex Dip.," No. 23, 23 App., Vol. hi. 

|| In Heming's " Cartulary," p. 431, mention is made of a place called 
Totenhale. 

% Also, see Heming's " Cartulary," p. 26, as to Tateringetun. 

** There is, or was, a toft called Toten, in the parish of Badsey, as appears 
by a title deed dated in 1722. 

+ + Heming's " Cartulary," p. 453. 

\l That is, the descendants of Ham. 



234 

which answers to^^rin Hebrew, and to rlrdr) and rirdbs in Greek. 
That they were particularly sacred to Orus and Osiris, the deities 
of light, who by the Grecians were represented under the title of 
Apollo. That these mounts were not only in Greece, but in 
Egypt, Syria, and most parts of the world ; that they were gene- 
rally formed by art, being composed of earth, raised very high, 
which was sloped gradually and with great exactness, and the top 
of all was crowned with a fair tower*. 

Although the Anglo-Saxons may have used such hills as " look- 
out stations," still many of them may have been of ancient British 
origin and derivation ; and the fact that all the above-mentioned 
hills or places in Worcestershire are either close to, or near upon 
the sides of roads, appears to favour the opinion that they were 
sacred to the Celtic Teutates, who was the guide over the hills 
and track-ways. Bryant says, Theuth, Thoth, Taut, Taautes, are 
the same title diversified, and belong to the chief god of Egypt, 
That Eusebius speaks of him as the same as Hermes. That 
from Theuth the Greeks formed QEO%, which, with that nation, 
was the most general name of the Deity. That it was the same 
deity which the Germans and Celtee worshiped under the name 
of Theut-Ait, or Theutates, whose sacrifices were very cruel, as 
we learn from Lucanf. 

The following interesting passage upon the subject is extracted 
from the " Worcestershire Miscellany!." — " Csesar, in his remarks 
upon the religion of Britain, observes, that Mercury was the chief 
object of popular veneration ; that there were many images of him, 
and that he stands as a guide over the hills and track- ways §. Not 
that the Boman Mercury was actually worshipped by that name 
before Caesar's arrival in Britain ; but stones being sacred to Mer- 
cury among the Greeks and Bomans, and Csesar perceiving the ar- 
tificial mounds surmounted by a stone, or simulacrum, were parti- 
cularly venerated, he hence concluded that Mercury was the god 

* Bryant, pp. 417, 418, 419. 
+ Ibid., pp. 11, 12. 
\ Vol., i., No. 2, June, 1829, p. 65. 

§ See Kemble's " Saxons in England," p. 339, &c, as to the identity of this 
Mercury with Woden. 



235 

held in peculiar esteem. Now, Mr. Bowles says, ' The Egyptian 
Thoth*, Thot, or Tot; the Phoenician Taautus, or Taute ; the 
Grecian Hermes ; the Roman Mercury ; the Teutates of the Celts 
(so called by Lucan, from the Celtic Du Taith, Deus Taautus), are 
universally admitted to be the samef.' A stone was the first 
rude representation of Thoth, Taute, or Teut (the Latinized Teu- 
tates of Lucan) which being placed on eminences, natural or arti- 
ficial, and more especially near roads, were thence called Tot- 
hills, or Teut-hills, and in many instances, in various parts of the 
kingdom, are so called at present." " A writer, designated as 
' Merlin,' in the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' March, 1829, says, 
' When the Cimmerian Druids migrated from Asia into Europe, 
they carried with them patriarchal traditions, their Chaldaean 
lore, and their Cadrusean alphabet, together with that grand aud 
characteristic badge of distinction, the name Theu-tate.' He 
further observes, ' There is no language, ancient or modern, into 
which this name is so easily and naturally resolvable as the Cim- 
bric, or British, and that Theu-taut is nothing more nor less than 
Dhiu-Tad, the universal parent, or God the Father.' Merlin 
says the Druids cherished ' this revered offspring of patriarchal tra- 
dition' till obliged by the stern Romans to relinquish it for the gods 
of their conquerors. Mr. Bowles, too, observes, ' It will not be 
denied, then, that as the Celts popularly worshipped Mercury, that 
is, this Thoth, the Druids secretly taught the immortality of the soul. 
The secret worship was of one infinite God, whose representation 
was the circle.' " Mr. Bowles also says Mercury's " name in 
Celtic was Du Taith, from whence Lucan calls him Teutates. 
According to my idea, Thoth, Taute, Toute, Tot, Tut, Tad, Ted, 
Tet J, are all derived from the same Celtic root, and are in names 
of places in England, indicative of some tumulus or conical hill, 

* " Thoth, according to Bishop Cumberland, was the son of Misraim, the 
son of Ham, and grandson of Noah." 

+ But see the " Gentleman's Magazine," January, 1829, pp. 45, 4G, where 
doubts are stated as " to the identity of the Egyptian Thoth with Hermes, or 
the Gaulish Mercuiius Teutates," and arguing that Taut or Teutates was the 
Egyptian Hercules, a symbol of the sun. 

J There were in the Anglo-Saxon times the following names, as mentioned 



236 

dedicated to the great Celtic god Taute, or Mercury, when there 
were ubique per Angliam, plurima simulacra, according to the 
testimony of Caesar." 

The reviewer of Mr. Bowles's work in the " Gentleman's Maga- 
zine," February, 1829, p. 140, observes, " It is plain from Livy 
that Mercury, 'EvoSlos (or Vialis), was called among the Celts, 
Mercury Teutates, and both these tumuli (referred to by Mr. 
Bowles) were on the sides of roads. Caesar proves the application ; 
for he says of the Britons, that they made Mercury ' viarum atque 
itinerum ducem,' hence the case concerning Toot-hills is very 
satisfactorily made out." 

In the parish of Nemnet in Somersetshire there is a remark- 
able barrow, called Fairy Toote, thought to be a work of the 
Druids*. In G-ough's Camden, in the account of Staffordshire, 
it is stated that " Theoten-hall, q. d., the hall of nations or pagans, 
now Tetnall [was] dyed with Danish blood in 911, by Edward the 
Elder." I mention this place, not that it belongs to the Toots, 
but because its name has been corrupted so as to correspond with 
the corrupted names of some of the Toots. It is possible that 
some of the other names which are given as coming from Toot 
would be found, could they be traced, to belong to other roots f. 



Before proceeding to describe several additional ancient British, 
Koman and Saxon relics which have been discovered in Worces- 
tershire and its vicinity, I must say a few words on the meaning 
of certain names and terms which will very frequently occur in 
the course of the narrative. 

in the " Codex Dip. :"— Taedsbroc, No. 561, 1369 (Tadsbrook) ; Taetlingtun, 
No. 676 (Tatlington), and Teottingtun, No. 146, &c. (Teddington), all in 
Worcestershire, and Tadanleah, No. 603, 1092, 1094 (Tadley), Hants ; Tad- 
maertun, No. 442, 448, 453, and 453 in App., Vol. iii., and 1195 (Tadmarton), 
Oxfordshire; Tatanbeorh, 366 (Tatborough), Dorset ; Tatanbroc, 714 (Tat- 
brook), Oxfordshire ; and Tatangrafes wurtwale, 347, 347 App., Vol. iii. (Tat- 
grove), Worcestershire. 

* Gough's Camden, Vol i., p. 105. 

t This observation may also apply to other schedules of names which are 
in this work classed under some particular root. 



237 

1st. Sacred or altar stones were called ambrosise petrse, or 
amber stones. 

2nd. Boundary stones were called hoar stones. 

3rd. Roman stations are in many instances known by their 
being called after some Roman game, such as the Quintan, &c. 

4th. The name of Portway is common to the Roman military 
ways, and 

5th. The ridgeways are considered to be either of Roman or 
ancient British origin. 

The name of Castor, Cester, or Chester, generally indicates a 
Roman station ; and Sarn, Street, Stane, and Stone, as fre- 
quently show the course of a British or Roman way*. 

I. The ancient British ways are not raised nor paved, nor 
always strait, but often wind along the tops or sides of the chains 
of hills which lie in their course. 

II. They do not lead to Roman towns, with which they have 
no connection, except when placed on the site of British fort- 
resses. 

III. They are marked by tumuli, like those of the Romans, 
but often throw out branches, which, after running parallel for 
some miles, are re-united in the original stemf. 

ANCIENT ROADS, CAMPS, AND REMARKABLE 
NAMES OF FIELDS AND PLACES. 

As the ancient. British, Roman, and Saxon roads and camps, 
in Worcestershire and its borders, have only been casually noticed 
in the previous part of this work, I have endeavoured to collect 
and consolidate all the principal facts relative to them ; and have 
likewise given the names of several fields and places which lie in 
or near the lines of such roads. 

* See the late Mr. Hatcher's notes to his edition of the much disputed work 
intitled the " Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester," published in 1809, p. 105. 

f Ibid., p. 101. The parallel branches most probably were made by the 
Romans and the primitive lines by the ancient Britons, as stated in the account 
of the primitive roads. 



•238 



Iter t ; 



WESTERN SIDE OF THE COUNTY. 

ANCIENT ROAD AND CAMPS, 

FROM 

WALLSHILL CAMP AND MALVERN HILLS TO 
WOODBURY HILL. 

In my account of the hills, I have likewise described the camps 
which lie on the western side of the county, in the line of the 
Malvern Chain, — Cowley or Cowleigh Park (in Leigh], Old 
Storage and Round Hill* (in Alfrick), Lulsley, Ankerdine Hill, 
Whitbourne, The Berrow, Ridge, and Woodbury Hills. It is pro- 
bable that an ancient ridgeway ran in that line near to the ridges 
of the hills, from Wall Hills, Colwall, and the Malvern Hills 
Camps to the camp at Woodbury Hill in Great Witley ; for there 
are several pieces in Leigh, called Big Ridway, and in Suck- 
ley, called Walldridge ; and adjoining the Round Hill in Alfrick 
there is a ridge called Wallshill Coppice (which is partly in 
Alfrick and partly in Suckley), and a lane, partly in Alfrick and 
partly in Lulsley, called Green Streetf , and not far from thence is 
a rock called Osebury or Oseberrow, in Lulsley; therefore the pro- 
bable line of the road in question, from Old Storage or Storridge, was 
in by Tundridge in Suckley, then by Catterhall, and along the east 
side of the Suckley Hill chain, between it and Buall or Bewill; Nor- 
grove, Oughton or Eoten Wells J ; Gorway's Green, Cruise Hill§, 

* It is astonishing what a number of round hills there are in the county. 
See the account of the Toot Hills, p 232, &c. 

+ There is a place called Green Street in Harvington, See Iter XIX. 

I See " Folk-Lore," Chap. xii. 

§ So called in a deed dated 27 Charles II. 



239 

or Cruse or Crewshill* ; the Round Hill and Walls Hill, — all in 
Alfrick ; then to Batesbush and Osebury Rock, and across the 
ford at Knightsford bridge, to Ankerdine Hill, and the camp at 
Whitbourne, and also to the camps at the Berrow and Woodbury 
Hills, where it probably joined the ancient road from Worcester 
to Tenbury, hereafter described. A line nearly parallel to this 
road probably ran from the Bridges Stone f, at the foot of Old 
Storage, in Alfrick, by Callow's Leap, and up the hill at the 
Knap or rising and by Patches (or Paches) Farm, leaving the 
Upper House and the Grimsend on the left ; thence along Clay 
Green and by Payne's Castle, in Alfrick, and along Green 
Street, in Alfrick and Lulsley ; thence onwards, by the Folly J 
Farm, in Alfrick, and Puttocks, otherwise Pothooks or Pauthooks, 
in Lulsley, and over the river Teme at Broadwas, Broadis, or 
Bradewas Ford ; thence through Broadwas and Dodenham to the 
camps at the Berrow and Woodbury Hills. A cross-road appears 
to have formerly run out of the first-mentioned road, from Nor- 
grove, or Gorway's Green, along a part which used to be called 
Cate Lane §, situated on the west side of the close by the Upper 
House, and thence by Grimsend to Payne's Castle. Another 
branch, instead of crossing the Teme at Puttock's End, most 
probably went from thence over the Red Cliff into Leigh parish, 
through the Devil's Pig-trough (which is a trench across a ridge 
of ground), and on through Leigh, Bransford (otherwise Braunts- 
ford), and St. John's, to Worcester. 

This line is principally distinguished by the names Wall Hill 

* There is a place called Crews-field in Dymock, Co. Gloucester. 

+ Erroneously called " Bridger's Town" in Isaac Taylor's map, published in 
1772. As much new red sand- stone rock was at an early period cut through 
at this part to form the road, I presume the bridge, which is of wood, acquired 
the name of the Bridge at Stone or the Bridge of Stone. It is called by the 
latter name in a deed dated 27th Charles II. 

I There are a great many places in Worcestershire and the neighbouring 
counties called " The Folly." 

§ There is a place called Crate Lane in Stanford in the Teme. See Iter 
VIII. Perhaps these names mean Gate Lane ; gate being a Saxon term for a 
road or way ; it also means a wicket. 



240 

and Wall*, occurring in several parts of it, which are evidences of 
Koman possession. 

The following names occur in this line : — 

In LEIGH there are Hocker Hill, Luckall's Orchard, Dead 
Loons, Upper and Lower Dead Loons, Hurfield, Hire Field, 
Great Towbury, Little Towbury, Wynns (or Wins), Grave, 
Pins Hill, Hovlands, Musmore Hill, Obersley, Old Ovens, 
Sich Orchard, Crumpenhillf Meadow, Castle Green Suffield, 
Castle Hill Meadow, Big and Little Lonkers Ley, Mundole 
Orchard, Kowberry's Meadow, Boustens Field, Hollocks, Cra- 
combe Hill, The Hoardings \, Harding's Meadow, Quag Suffield, 
The Sturts, Warwick's Wish, The Mounds, The Nap (Knap), 
Cowley (Cowleigh) Park, Big Ridway Pieces, The Red Cliff, 
The Devil's Pig Trough, Tinker's Cross, Black Jack's Cave, Patch 
Hill§, and Omber's Hill||. This parish is called Lege, in 
" Domesday Book." 

Dead Loons was probably the site of a battle or skirmish in 
the civil wars, as human bones and cannon-balls have been found 
there. It lies at the bottom of the east side of Old Storage. 
Dr. Nash If, speaking of a military skirmish which happened in 
Leigh, says, perhaps it was " while the Parliament forces lay in 
this county, before Brereton summoned the town of Worcester, in 
March 1646. In September 1645, the king marched from Wor- 
cester to relieve Hereford, and obliged the Scots to abandon the 
siege*'*." A cannon-ball was, a few years ago, found several feet 

* The parallel line from Malvern Hills to Tenbury, &c, next hereafter 
described, is also so distinguished. (See the derivation of the name " Wall," 
and a list of Wall Hills, in the account of the Malvern Hills, pp. 155, 158, 159.) 

f Otherwise Crumpal or Crumpton Hill. 

j See as to a hoar-stone in Leigh, in the general account of hoar-stones. 

§ Several of the above-mentioned places are referred to in the " Folk-Lore," 
Chap. xii. 

|| Most probably meaning Ambers Hill. (See what is stated relative to 
Ombersley, in the account of Ambrosae Petrae, Chap, ii., and " Folk-Lore.") 

IT Vol. ii., p. 74. 

** About two miles from Dead Loons, in Upper Sherridge, in Leigh, there 
is a piece of ground and a barn called Cromwells, vulgo Crumells, or 
Cromalls. 



241 

deep in the bank by the roadside, at Callow's Leap, not far from 
the north side of Old Storage, in Alfrick ; and another was 
ploughed up in the Grimsend estate. 

Besides " The Devil's Pig-trough," there is a place called 
The Devil's Den, in Stanford, and also in Bromsgrove ; The 
Devil's Bowling Green, in Inkbarrow; The Devil's Dib, in 
Areley Kings ; The Devil's Leap, in Dodenham and Martley ; 
and The Devil's Spadeful, in the parish of Kidderminster. 

A pot of silver coins was found in this line of march at Hales- 
end, in Cradley, the property of Richard Yapp, Esq., the par- 
ticulars of which were given in Berrow's " Worcester Journal " 
for August 1842. These coins were chiefly of Edward VI., 
Elizabeth, and Charles I., and were doubtless buried for security 
in the troublesome times of the civil wars. 

A quantity of silver coins were also found in Mathon, as stated 
in Laird's " Topographical and Historical Description of Wor- 
cestershire," the particulars of which could not be ascertained. 
Within the last half century, a hoard of gold coins was found, 
upon stocking-up an old hedge in the Grits Farm, in Cradley, in 
Herefordshire, the property of William Morton, Esq., of Lower 
Wick : these were of George III., and Portuguese gold pieces of 
John V. and Joseph I. 

In BRANSFORD, in Leigh, there is Tibshill*. According to 
Dr. Nash, Bransford, Bradnesford, Braynsford, or Braunsford, 
means the ford of Braines. It is called Branesford in " Codex 
Dip.," No. 65 ; and Bregnesford, in No. 508, 508 App., Vol. iii. 

In SUCKLEY there are places called Great and Little Kitchill 
Coppice, Tundridge, Catterhall, Sharmore Meadow, Wreckless, 
Babbins Woodf Great Babbins, Little Babbins, Upper Babbins 
and Lower Babbins, Kithay Coppice, Lower Berrow, Cornowles \ 
Meadow, The Odnetts. Howbury§ Meadow, Little Howbury, 

* See " Folk-Lore." 

f There is a place called Babbins Wood, near Whittington, Co. Salop. 

% Also Cearnowl, in Knighton-on-Teme. 

§ There is Rowberry's Meadow, in Leigh ; Roughborough, in Stretton-on-the- 
Fosse, Co. Warwick ; and several places called Rowberry inllfraeombe parish, 
Co. Devon. 

E 



242 

Gossy Pails, Bearcroft, Archen Field, Aldeiy Hill, Swerdy Hill, 
Image, Quabb Coppice, Camp Orchard*, Walldridge f Hopyard, 
Walldridge Meadow, Little Walldridge Meadow, The Batch, 
Egghill Coppice, The Ovens, The Ovens Coppice, Oventree 
Orchard, Little Oventree Orchard, Pinner's Piece, Tin Meadow, 
Tin Meadow Hopyard, Tin Meadow Orchard, Red Castle Orchard, 
Wile Coppice, The Bante, or Bant j. In " Domesday Book," 
this parish is called Sukelei. 

In addition to the above name, " Kit," there are places called 
Near Kit's Close and Far Kit's Close, in Lulsley ; Kitlaughton, 
in Knighton-on-Teme ; Kitsall, in Hanbury; Kit's Iron, in 
Feckenham ; Kit's Castle, in Tenbury ; Kit Meadow, in Upton 
Warren ; Kit Pit, in Elmbridge ; Kitcroft, in Beoley ; Kitwell, in 
Northfield ; Kitwell Meadow, in Clent ; and Kittans, in Castle 
Morton. 

There are also Kitlands and Kitlands Coppice, in Over Arley, 
Co. Stafford ; Kitbatch, in Tedstone Delamere, Co. Hereford ; 
Kitstone, in the parish of Ilfracombe, Co. Devon ; Kit's Green, 
Kitgreen Leasow, Kitgreen Field, and Near and Far Kit- 
green Pieces, in Sheldon, Co. Warwick; and Kit Hill, in 
Cornwall. 

As the word " Kistvaen," or " Kistven," means a Druidical 
monument, or stone chest consisting of four stones or coits, it is 
possible that the above-mentioned " Kit" is a corruption of 
" Kist." The Kistvaen, at Aylesford, in Kent, is commonly 
called "Keith Coty House §," or "Kit's Cotty House;" and 
Lambarde, in his " Perambulation of Kent," 1570, says it then 
was " termed of the common people there, ' Citscote House,' " 
This Grose derives from Catigern, a Briton, who is supposed to 
have fallen in the same battle with Horsa, the Saxon, and is said 
to be buried there. This idea, however, is strongly refuted in 
" Old England," Part i., p. 15 ; and we should think it not 

* It lies near Acton Beauchamp. 
f See Malvern, pp. 158, 159. 
X See Alfrick, Iter VI. 

§ See Grose's "Antiquities," second edition, p. 131 ; and Gough's "Camden," 
Vol. i, p. 311, second edition, 1806. 



243 

improbable that " Kit " is an abbreviation of " Kist," and 
" Cotty " another form of " Coit." 

I have a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, which was at the old 
farm-house called " Lower Berrow," in Suckley. It is painted 
on oak panels, and probably was formerly suspended in the 
church. It exhibits the usual magnificence of costume, and is 
thus inscribed : — 



Posvi Devm 
Adivtorem Mevm 

Mt: Svm, 
59. 



Nata G-ronew- 

iciae Ao 1533 

Septem : 6. 



Under her left elbow appears an open book, with a quotation 
from Psalm xl., 11. This portrait was painted in the year 1592** 
It will be observed the inscription states that the queen was born 
September 6th ; but many writers say it was on the 7th ; others 
on the 8th ; and others on the 1 3th of that month. In Miss 
Agnes Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of England f," a 
document is referred to, dated the 7th of September, which 
announces the birth ; but it is possible that the event took place 
in the evening or night of the 6th, and that it was announced on 
the 7th. In regard to the above-mentioned motto, it may be 
observed that Miss Strickland J, on the authority of Sir Robert 
Naunton, states that Queen Elizabeth's silver bore the words, 
" Posui Deum adjutorem meum§" — " I have chosen God for my 
helper." 

A proclamation, dated 1563, in the hand-writing of secretary 
Cecil, prohibits " all manner of persons to draw, paynt, grave, 
or portrayit her majesty's personage or visage for a time, until, 
by some perfect patron and example the same may be by others 
followed, &c. ; and for that her majestie perceiveth that a grete 
nomber of hir loving subjects are much greved, and take grete 

* Some account of this portrait appeared in the " Journal of the Archaeo- 
logical Institute," Vol. iii., p. 89. 
f Vol. iv., p. 246. 
X Vol. vi., p. 145. 
§ " Fragmenta Regalia." 



244 

offence with the errors and deformities allredy committed y 
sondry persons in this behalf, she straightly chargeth all hir 
officers and ministers to see to the due observation hereof, and as 
soon as may be, to reform the errors already committed," &c. 
— (See Hone's " Year Book," p. 363.) 

There are many names compounded with the monosyllable 
" Egg ;" for instance, Egg Hill, in Suckley ; Egdon, and Big 
and Little Egdon, in Sutton, Tenbury ; Egg Lane Piece and 
Aggborough Piece, in Stone and Shenston ; Eggs Hay, in 
Eldersfield ; Egg Hills, in Doderhill, also in Hampton Lovett ; 
Egg Down*, in Clifton -on-Teme ; Hagg and Middle Hills, and 
Hagg Meadow, in Castle Morton ; Aggborough, in Hurcott and 
Comberton, in the Foreign of Kidderminster ; Little Hagburrows, 
in Dodenham ; Tagbourne, in Chaddesley Corbett ; and Hagg 
Lane, or Egg Lane, on the limits of Hartlebury. 

There is also Egbury Camp, in Hants ; a hill called Hagbourn, 
in Berks ; and Egdon Hill, at Grendon Warren, in Here- 
fordshire. 

In the account of Hagbush Lane, Islington, in Hone's " Every- 
Day Bookf," it is stated, that " Hag is the old Saxon wordHaeg, 
which became corrupted into Haugh, and afterwards into Haw, 
and is the name of the berry of the hawthorn : the same word 
Haga signified a hedge, or any inclosure, Hag afterwards sig- 
nified a bramble." 

In Anglo-Saxon, Heeg signifies a hedge ; and Haga an inclosure 
made by a hedge. 

As instances of names similar to " The Ovens," " The Ovens 
Coppice," &c. in Suckley, we may mention Oven Piece, and Oven 
Wood, in the parish of Bromsgrove; Ovenshill, in Doderhill; 
Old Ovens, in Leigh ; and, The Oven, in Tredington. Some of 
these names may probably be indicative of the sites of ancient 
public ovens, called by the British " Odyn J." 

* Eg or Ig, in Anglo-Saxon, signifies an ige or island, or eye ; but several 
of the above-mentioned names cannot be so derived. " Down " comes from the 
Saxon " Dun," a hill. 

t Vol. i., p. 875. 

1 See Whitaker's " History of Manchester," Vol. ii., p. 54. 



245 

The following list of moduses, or supposed moduses, on privy 
or small tithes in the parish of Suckley, including the hamlets of 
Alfrick and Lulsley, may be considered as curious, inasmuch as 
they tend to show the great difference in the value of property, or 
rather of money in those times, to what it is at present*. If they 
were good moduses they must have existed as far back, at least, 
as the time of Richard I., otherwise they were rankf. These 
payments are now happily all extinguished under the Tithe 
Commutation Act. 

Smoke, Id. j, and garden, ld.§ 2d. 

The milk or white of each cow Id. 

Cider and perry per hogshead 2d. 

Calves, if reared for plough or pail, per each . . %d. 

Calves, if killed for the family, the left shoulder . Od. 

Sheep's wool, if under ten, per each fleece . . Id. 

Lambs, if under seven, per each Id. 

For each colt id. 

Eggs : two for each hen, and three for each cock, 
at Easter 

Eggs : two for each duck, and three for each drake. 

Goslings : at Midsummer, if seven, one ; if under 
seventeen, no more 

Sucking pigs, if seven ; a third choice at fourteen 
days old t 

Several of the moduses claimed in the adjoining parish of 
Leigh correspond with the preceding, except in the instances of 
2d. for a colt, and a \d. for lambs, if under seven. They also 
paid what is called " Leighton Money" in lieu of tithe fruit, 2d., 
and id. for a pigeon house. 

* See further on this point in the account of the " Manorial Customs of 
Ombersley," Iter XV. 

+ In proof, however, that they were not rank, similar moduses to most of 
these in other parishes were established as good by decisions in courts of 
law. — See the note in Burn's " Ecclesiastical Law," by S. Fraser, Esq., Vol. iii., 
pp. 458-459, seventh edition, 1809. 

} In lieu of all tithe wood, or fire-wood. 

§ In lieu of all titheable matters growing in the garden. 



246 

Query. — Why was the modus for tithe fruit called " Leighton 
Money?" 

In ALFRICK there are,— The Old Hill, Copson's Coppice, 
Hodnett's Orchard, Eycester or Ayciter, Benty Vere, Fleur-de-lis, 
Stichen's Hill, The Millards, Sibhay or Tibhay, The Tibbins, 
Quince Hill, Mancroft*, Prick-pears Coppice f, Cheapside, Clap 
Gate, Green Street, Yell, The Knap, Luckholds, Payne's Castle, 
The Folly, Wonam Meadow or Wad Meadow, Roman Orchard J, 
Old Storage or Old Storridge, The Beck, The Vineyard, Conygree 
Coppice, Tar or Tor Coppice, Mousehole, Bewill, Norgrove or 
Hoar Grove, Catterhall or Catterall, Cruise (or Cruse, or Crews) 
Hill§, The Round Hill, Wallshill Coppice, Raffnals or Ravenhills |j, 
Sonit Hole, Callow's Leap, Fairies Cave, Patches or Paches, Patch 
Hill, Grimsend, Oughton or Eoten Wells, and Halvens or 
Halvins II. 

As synonymes with " Hodnetts" may be mentioned Hodnet, 
near Market Drayton in Shropshire, and the Odnetts in Suckley. 
Of names nearly allied to " Stitchenshill" in appearance, are 
the following : — Pitchen Hill, in Spetchley ; Hichen Hill, in 
Lindridge ; Pitchall Hill, in Atch Lench ; Big Stitchings, and 
Lower Stitchings, in Hayley ; Stitches and Stitchens Bank, in 
Lulsley ; and First and Second Stitches, in Grimley. All these 
names may probably be derived from the word " Pitch," meaning 
a steep place. 

As synonymes of " Quince Hill" may be mentioned Quince 
Hill, in Eastham ; Quince Hill, in Hallow ; and Quin Hill, in 
Mathon. It is said that quince trees, as well as pear trees, were 

* Also Mancroft, in Knighton-on-Teme ; and likewise in Upton-upon- 
Severn. 

f This appears to have reference to a species of wild prickly pear tree. It 
is said the Komans introduced the pear tree into England. 

X This has nothing to do with our antiquities. The Orchard was so named 
from an apple called Eoman. 

§ There is Crewsfield in Dymock, Co. Gloucester. 

|| See p. 194, &c. 

^| With respect to the etymology and antiquities of Old Storage and Alfrick, 
see pp. 190 and 193, to 203, and " Folk-Lore." 



247 

first introduced into Britain by the Romans *. It was an ancient 
Greek custom, that, at a marriage, the bridegroom and bride 
should eat a quince together, as part of the wedding ceremonies f. 
And there is an account in " Notes and Queries," No. 63, 
11th January, 1851, that, in the evening after a marriage in this 
country, which took place in 1725, quinces where presented by 
the bridegroom's father to the bridegroom's mother, and presents 
in money to each member of the family. But whether this 
instance may be taken as evidence that the Greek custom had 
been introduced into this country by the Romans, or whether 
it is to be regarded merely in the light of a casual occurrence, we 
do not undertake to decide. 

Bewill is spelled Bual, alias Bewail, in title deeds dated 1691, 
&c. This place was probably named from Beaulieu, meaning the 
beautiful place (see Bewdley). There is a place called Buelt, for- 
merly Bullaeum, in Brecknockshire, on the Portway. There also 
is a place called " Tump Bewhill," in Church Honeybourne ; 
Bewill Field, in Sutton, in Tenbury ; Beawells, in Aston in 
Blockley ; Beauhall Meadow, Big Beauhall, and Little Beauhall, 
in Hanbury; Bewell Head, in Bromsgrove. 

The following appears to throw some light upon the name of 
Catterhall. — " Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' 
Company of Works, entered for publication between the years 
1557 and 1570 ; with Notes and Illustrations, by J. Payne Collier, 
Esq., F.S.A., &c.,'" published by the Shakespeare Society. 
" 1565-6— R d - of Thomas Colwell, for his lycence for 
prynting of a ballet intituled the Cater brawles, both 
wytty and mery iiij d -" 

A brail, brawl, or brausle, was a species of dance, (" Douces 
Illus.," i., 217), and double brawls are mentioned by several 
writers ; but here we have a notice of what should seem to be a 
quadruple brawl, or " cater brawl." In the " Hanclfull of ever- 
pleasant Delights," 1584, is the " Historie of Diana and Acteon 
to the Quarter Brawles," p. 120. 

* See Whitaker's " History of Manchester," Vol. ii., pp. 49, 50, 02. 
f See Potter's " Grecian Antiquities." 



248 

There also is Catterbatch Piece and Catterbatch Meadow, in 
Abberley. 

" Sonit Hole" probably either stands for Stoney Hole or 
Stoney Dole. In a document of the date 1796, mention is made 
of Stouney* Dole in Glaswick Common Field, which lies by 
Barley Brook : as Sonit Hole also lies there, the same place is 
probably intended. There is Stoned Hole, in Castle Morton; 
and Stoney Dole at Leigh Sinton, in Leigh. The name " Dole," 
in ancient British, signifies a plain or valley lying to the sea or 
a river. It is of Phoenician origin, from Daula, a plain f . In 
addition to the above there are also Long Doles in Romsley, 
Hales Owen ; Dole Meadow, in the parish of Bromsgrove ; Dole 
Meadow, Wimble Dole, and Big Wimble Dole, in Tardebig ; and 
Dolej, in Hartlebury. 

" Callow's Leap" is a most romantic precipice on the roadside, 
about 400 yards west of the Bridges Stone, the Leigh Brook 
running through Coppice Woods, at a considerable depth below. 
There is a legend that a mighty hunter, of the name of Callow, 
leaped down this precipice. Whether he broke his neck in the 
adventure, no one knows ; but it may be presumed that he did 
not find his grave there, as we have a place called " Callow's 
Grave," near to Tenbury§. 

Alfrick and Lulsley are hamlets annexed to Suckley, but they 
are taxed and rated separately, and were so in the time of Henry 
VIII. , as appears by the " Valor Ecclesiasticus," Vol. iii., p. 247, 
col. 2 ; and also by a subsidy granted in the thirty-second year 
of that monarch (1540-1), by the Convocation of the Province of 
Canterbury, of 4d. in the pound, which was to raise £.150,000 in 
two years. Whether the hamlets originally were small rectories 
or vicarages, and afterwards annexed to Suckley, or whether they 
were carved out of Suckley, is not now known, but the former is 
thought to have been the case. In page 193 to 207, 1 have given 

* The peasantry call a stone, a stouan. 

f See " Britannia Antiqua," by Aylett Sammes, p. 67. 

J Some of these names may, however, come from " Dole," a gift ; or from 
" Dole," a void space left in tillage. 

§ Further mention of the name Callow will be found in the account of 
Bromsgrove, p. 123. 



249 

some early particulars of these hamlets; and the decree there 
mentioned of 1585 refers to a prior decree or sentence of Arch- 
bishop Robert, relative to certain questions between the parish 
and hamlets concerning the church and chapels, which must have 
been either Archbishop Kilwarby, who was elected in 1272, and 
was made a cardinal in 1278, or to Archbishop Winchelsey, who 
was elected in 1293, and died in 1313. The hamlets have sepa- 
rate parish officers; and marriages, baptisms, and burials are 
performed at these chapels ; but no burials take place in the 
chapelyard in Lulsley, it not being consecrated*. 

In LULSLEY (anciently Lullesley) there are Earnolls, Co- 
pernhill Coppice, Raffnals or Ravenhills Green, RafTnals Orchard, 
Bachefield, Bachfield, or Batchfield ; Stitches ; the Jags, Little 
Jags, Penhill, Little Berrow, Common Berrow, and Sherah-croft ; 
Black-borough ; Osebury, or Oseberrow Rock ; Blacks-well ; Red 
Cliff Coppice ; Cold, or Colles, or Coles Place f ; the Redding or 
Cophern Hill ; Stitchens Bank and Coppice ; Near and Far Kit's 
Close ; Cockshut, or Cockshoot ; Horsage J, or Horrage Coppice ; 
Green Street ; Puttocks, Pothooks, or Pauthooks-end Orchard ; 
Patch-Ham ; Bates-bush ; Harding Orchard, and Whistlers §. 

Speaking of Puttock's-end, we may mention also a farm called 
" Poltucks-end," near the Rhyd, by Dripshill in Madresfield, 
where there is a ford over the Severn ; the word Rid, or Rhyd, in 
ancient British and Phoenician signifying a ford. There is also a 
place called Puttoc's-end in Flyford Flavel, likewise near to a ford. 

Some light on the subject of these names may perhaps be 
gained from the fact that the orchard in Lulsley is also called 
Puttock's, or Pothook's-inn ; and I am informed that Puttoc's-end 
in Flyford Flavell is likewise called Pothook's Inn. Some of the 
old inhabitants add that there was a small inn at the spot, and 
that hooks were attached to the wall of the house, by which horses 
were fastened by the bridle, there being no stable belonging to 
the premises. Such small inns, by fords, may therefore possibly 

* The chapelyard at Alfrick was consecrated by Bishop Thomas, temp. 1685. 

t See " Folk-Lore" and " Old Coles." 

% Also, Horsage Orchard, in Wichenford. 

§ See further mention of Lulsley under Alfrick, p. 293, &c, and " Folk-Lore. " 



250 

have acquired their designation from these hooks; if so, the 
suffix " end," attached to such names, is probably a corruption of 
the word inn. In the Ordnance Map the place at Flyford Fla- 
vell is called Pothook's Inn *. The word Puttock means a courte- 
zan, also a small candle added to make up a pound f; and in 
ornithology, a kite or buzzard. Several observations appeared in 
the minor correspondence of the " Gentleman's Magazine" in 
1849, relative to certain applications of the word Puttoc. 

In BROAD WAS there are Ellbatch Coppice, Round Hill, The 
Hale, Graffridge, Petchwick, and Cainsbury. Broadwas is also 
called Brodis, or Bradewas ; in " Domesday," Bradewesham. In 
the Saxon times there were places on the boundaries of Cotheridge 
named iEting-way, the Old Cross, Wulf gars-mere, Coldwell, and 
Brainsford J. Cotheridge was anciently named Coddaryege, Cod- 
raie, Coddanhrycg§, and Coterug. In " Domesday," Codrie. 

In DODENHAM, or Dodeham, there are Great Womage, 
Little Womage, Peoplenon Meadow, Vine Hill, Vine Rough, 
The Vineyards, Loveridge Bank, Gurnuck's Dingle, Lond Hill, 
Alduns, Upper Round Hill, Lower Round Hill, Little Hag- 
burrows, and the Devil's Leap||. The " Codex Dip.," No. 154, 
154 App., Vol. iii., mentions Dodsema Pull (Dodenham Pool). 
See p. 212, as to Ankerdine Hill. 

In KNIGHTWICK (otherwise Knitwick, or Knitwyck) there 
are the Round Hill, Blacks-welllT, Great Blackwell, Black-well 

* There is Robert's-end Street, in the parish of Hanley Castle, in this 
county, and Tedney's-end, in Whitbourne, Herefordshire, near the river Teme ; 
and " The Vines-end, or Vine Inn Estate," in Cradley, Herefordshire. See 
the " 26th Further Report of the Commissioners for mtmiring concerning Cha- 
rities," p. 570, relative to Tedney's-end ; and their " 32nd Further Report," 
Part 2, p. 109, relative to " The Vines-end, or Vine Inn Estate," whereby it 
appears that the latter was called " The Vine Inn" as far back as 1667, There 
are many names, however, which perhaps rightly terminate with the word " end," 
which are called " in " or " inn," and vice versa. 

f See Halliwell's " Glossary of Archaic Words," 

X Vide Heming's "Cartulary," p. 350; also Nash, Vol. ii., Appendix, 
pp. 47, 48. 

§ See " Codex Dip.," No. 508, 508 App., Vol. iii. 

|| It is a deep dingle, partly in Dodenham and partly in Hartley. 

K See " Folk-Lore." 



251 

Hopyard, Durable Hole Coppice, Upper and Lower Coal Pits, 
and the Vole. 

In WHITBOURNE, Herefordshire, there are Gadbidge, 
Crumplebury Hill, and Wishmoor, near Inksmoor. 

In MARTLEY (Martely, or Mercelei) there are Castle Hill 
Meadow, Tin Close, War Croft, Bossock Coppy (Coppice), Radbury 
Bank, Poke Meadow, Berrow Hill, Berrow Stone, Jacob's Baver, 
Rodge, or Rudge Hill ; Battle Field, Hither and Further Callow 
Field, Callow's Piece, Puckley Green Farm, and Devil's Leap. 

In HILLHAMTON, in Martley, there are Upper and Lower 
Wolstones*, Hell Meadow, Twhit Lane, and Great Castle Field. 

In CLIFTON-ON-TEME there are The Old Hills, The Imp Or- 
chard f, Camp Meadow; Hell-hole Orchard, Coppice, and Ash-bed; 
Egg Down, Round Hill; White-way Head, Ashbed, and Coppice; 
Upper and Lower Stuckbatch, and Woodmanton. In " Domes- 
day Book," Clifton is named Clistvne. 

The estate called Woodmanton is a manor of itself, separate 
from the manor of Clifton. The knightly family of the Wyshams, 
who were lords of the manor of Clifton, were seated at Woodman- 
ton between the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III. J, that is 
between 1216 and 1377. Sometime afterwards Woodmanton 
was possessed by the Callowhills of Tedstone Delamere (the heirs 
in the female line of the Wyshams). It is now the property of the 
Cowcher family, and has been so ever since the early part of 
Queen Elizabeth's reign. In Woodmanton Chapel, Clifton Church, 
there is a raised monument representing a knight in armour, in a 
tarbard, with a lion at his feet§ ; he is recumbent and the legs are 
crossed ; this is supposed to be the tomb of Sir Ralph Wysham. The 
lion at his feet (which looks more like a dog) gave rise to a legend 
current amongst the peasantry to this day, that as Sir Ralph was 
one day walking with his dog, from Woodmanton to Clifton, he 
fell down dead under a yew tree, where he was found lying on his 
back, with his legs crossed, and his faithful dog crouching at his 

* See " Astley," as to this name. 
+ See " Folk-Lore." 
X See Nash, Vol. i,, pp. 212-249. 
§ Ibid., p. 249. 



wm 



252 

feet. Sir Ralph is supposed to have been a crusader. The 
family arms are represented in the painted window of Woodman- 
ton Chapel, and in other windows of the church. Sable, a fess 
argent, between six martlets of the second*. Martlets, it is said, 
were depicted on the shields of the crusaders. 

The old moated f wooden mansion was taken down in the early 
part of the present century, and rebuilt of stone by the late 
Martin Coucher, Esq. In my juvenile days, my venerable grand- 
mother used, when I visited her at the old mansion, to show me 
one of those remarkable large variegated glass beads called Druid's 
eggs| or adder gems, which some antiquaries suppose were 
brought from the east by the crusaders as talismans or charms, 
as a portion of one was found in the tomb of the crusader Udard 
de Broham§. Others say that they were Druidical, and of Phoe- 
nician manufacture 1 1. 

The following extract, from Nash, bears upon the subject of 
the Woodmanton estate being a manor to itself IT : — " There are 
two very ancient deeds in Latin, without date, in the possession 
of Francis Ingram, of Ticknell, Esq., owner of the Upper Home, 
in Clifton, whereby some lands are granted to his ancestor, then 
owner of the Home, or Ham (it being called Home in the one 
grant and Ham in the other) ; and these grants are made to hold 



* See Nash, Vol. ii., App. 93. 

f It is said there were, at the quadrangles of the inner margin of the moat, 
four loop-holed round towers or turrets of stone ; only one now remains. The 
draw-bridge was taken down, and part of the moat filled up, probably about a 
century and a half ago, after the conclusion of the civil war. 

X " Anguina ova," or Druid's eggs of Pliny. 

§ Situate within the chancel of the parish church of Brougham, in West- 
moreland. 

|| See the " Archaeologia" thereon, Vol. xxxiv., p. 46 to 50, and the " Archaeo- 
logical Journal," of the Institute, Vol. iii., p. 354, and Vol. iv., p. 60. 
Also, vide the " Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute at Salisbury, 
1849," p. 3, relative to the " gleyn neyder, or holy adder stone," said 
to have been found in a cist in a tumulus near Winterbourne Stoke, 
containing " circular lines of opaque sky-blue and white, representing a serpent 
entwined round a perforated centre." 

% Vol. ii., Corrections and Additions, p. 9. 



253 

of the grantor and his heirs, and not of the lord of the fee, which 
must be antecedent to the year 1290, when the statute of ' Quia 
emptores terrarum' was made, which prohibits such inferior hold- 
ings. The deeds are in good preservation ; the one is by Lucianus 
de Woodmanton, and the other by Elias Venator de Woodmanton, 
and the name of the former is still legible on the seal ; and the 
' habendum' and ' tenendum' is ' de me et hseredibus meis pro ser- 
vitio,' &c. Woodmanton was formerly the Wysham's, and adjoins 
to the Upper Home or Ham, the ancient estate and residence of 
the Ingrams." 

John Coucher, who purchased the Woodmanton estate in 1569, 
was High Bailiff of Worcester in 1563 and 1565*. John, his 
son (Alderman of Worcester) was Bailiff of that city in 1593 and 
1595 f, and also a burgess in several parliaments, temp. James I. 
and Charles I.J In Green's " History of Worcester," Vol. ii., 
p. 36, there is a curious account (dated 28th January, 19th 
James I., 1620) of the wages, 2s. Qd. a-day, paid by the citizens 
to their members, Robert Barkeley and Mr. Coucher §, for attend- 
ing the parliament. 

The alderman's son, Edmond, married Anne, eldest daughter 
of Philip Bearcroft, of Meer-green Hall||, Esq., as appears by the 
pedigree of Bearcroft in the Herald's Visitation, Worcester, in 
1682-4. Edmond's sister (Mary)1F married George Twitty, of 
Clifton-upon-Teme,. as appears by the pedigree of Twitty in the 
same Visitation. Edmond's grandson, Thomas (son of his son 
Edmond) in 1726, married Susannah**, daughter of Edward 
Ingram, of Upper Home, or Ham, Esq., by his wife Susannah, 
daughter of John Cox, Esq., of Clent. 

* See Nash, Vol. ii., Appendix, 112. 

f Ibid. 

I Ibid., Vol. i., Intr., p. 30. 

§ He was also one of those who were appointed aldermen in the charter of 
the 2nd of October, in the 19th year of James L, 1620. 

|| In the parish of Hanbury. 

5[ There is a blank for her name in the Visitation Book, but I have supplied 
it from the will of her eldest brother, Thomas Coucher, dated in 1643. 

** She was his second wife. 



—M^— 



254 



In SHELSLEY WALSH, or Little Shelsley, there is Witchery 
Hole*. This parish was anciently called Caldesley, Seldesley, 
and Sheldesley ; and in " Domesday Book," Caldeslei. 

In SHELSLEY BEAUCHAMP, or Great Shelsley, there 
are Street Bank, Camp Hill, Big Holbourn, Round Hill, Poke 
Meadow, Hell Hole, Harborough Hill, and Barrel Heald, or 
Barrel Hill. It was anciently called Sholdesley, and in " Domes- 
day," Celdeslai. There is a hamlet in this parish called Shelsley 
Kings. 



See " Folk-Lore." 



255 



gttr »$|. 

ANCIENT EOAD FKOM MALYEEN HILLS TO 
TENBUEY, Ac. 

A branch road from the Malvern line* may have gone north- 
westward from Cowley Parkf, in Leigh (at the end of the North 
Malvern Hill), through Cradley, in Herefordshire, by Eidgeway 
Cross I, along the Eidgeway, and by the Eidgeway Oak ; thence 
through Acton Beauchamp, in Worcestershire, and WofFerwood 
Common, Avenbury, Claterpark, Bromyard Downs, and by Broad 
Oak and Brockampton, in Herefordshire ; thence through Edwin 
Loach, a detached part of Worcestershire (where there is a camp), 
and by Wall Hill Camp, at Thornbury, west of Collington ; thence 
by Lower Sapey and through Upper Sapey(between which and Shels- 
ley Walsh there is a camp at Farmers' Copse, on the border between 
Worcestershire and Herefordshire) ; thence by Stoke Bliss and Wol- 
verlow otherwise Wolferlow, in Herefordshire, and by Handley Wil- 
liam, Handley Child, and Kyre to Tenbury in Worcestershire ; from 
whence it may have continued northward to Edge Hill, and the 
ancient encampment atTitterstone§, on Clee Hill, in Shropshire. 

In MATHON (or Mathin) which is partly in Worcester- 
shire and partly in Herefordshire, there are Street Meadow, 
Horsenett's Coppice, Horsenetts, Eowburrow Wood, Clater 
Park, Castle Field, Castle Bank, Little Castle, the Yell, 

* See p. 238. 

+ See Chap, iv., relative to the hoar-stone in that part, 

% Where it probably crossed the Portway hereinafter described. See 
Iter XIV. 

§ See " Hoar-Stones," Chap, iv., concerning one of the summits of Titter- 
stone called War -edge. 



256 

and Penfield, Pen Coppice*, Quin Hill, Cotherwood, Jack 
Field and Jack Field Coppice, Lower Dobbins, Dobbin's Meadow, 
Gronage Moor Meadow, Colwell Hill Orchard, Little Bervet's, 
Moundings, Imburrow Field, Eve Nuts, Axdown, Kail's Nap, 
Backburrow Coppice and Orchard, Long Mondene and Quin 
Hill. 

In " Domesday Book," Mathon is called Matma. In con- 
junction with the names "Yell and Penfield," we may mention 
Yell Bank and Yell Coppice, in Holt and Little Witley ; Yell's 
Meadow, in Great Witley ; the Yeld and Yeld Coppice, in Acton 
Beauchamp ; the Yellings (a common meadow), in Chasely ; 
Yeld Meadow, in the parish of St. Peter's Worcester ; Yeld Wood, 
in Abbot's Lench, Fladbury ; Burcott Yeeld, Shepley Yield, and 
Wood Coat Yield, in Bromsgrove ; Yelters, in Longdon ; the 
Yield, in Astley ; the Yells, in Sutton in Tenbury ; and the Yeld, 
in Rochford. As the name Yell, in Mathon, is connected with 
the name Penfield, we may perhaps be allowed to suppose that in 
the latter place cattle were penned f up to feed, and in the former 
were slaughtered. If, however, the name Yell, instead of mean- 
ing a cry of horror, is a corruption of " yield," it means productive 
land ; but it must be observed here, that in North Devonshire 
there is a belief in a spectral pack called "yeth hounds," or 
" yell hounds," supposed to be the disembodied or transmigrated 
spirits of unbaptized children, which having no resting-place 
wander about the woods at night, making a wailing noise \. 

In CRADLEY, Herefordshire, there are Tump Hill, Dole 
Field, Stoney Cross, Upper Barrow or Upper Berrow, Barrow 
Coppice, Barrow Meadow, Barrow Field, Barrow Wood, Lower 
Barrow Wood, Little Barrow Wood, Round Hill, the Vineyard, 
Great Vineyard Wood, Little Vineyard Coppice, Riderdine 

* Heming's " Cartulary," p. 404, &c, notices Penhyll or Penhulle, in Wor- 
cestershire. There is Penhill in Lulsley. 

+ The Saxon word " Pen," signifying an enclosure for sheep. See further 
as to this word in the account of Cruckbarrow Hill. 

\ See further on this subject, and also as to the wish or wisked hounds, in 
the "Athenaeum" for March 27, 1847, pp. 334, 335, and also as to the wisked 
hounds in the account of the Pixies, in the " Folk-Lore." 1 



257 

Coppice, Stirt Meadow, Dane Hop-yard, Baldridge, Ridgeley, Walls- 
field Meadow, Wallsfield Orles, Jumper 's Hole*, Park Barrow Or- 
chard, Park Barrow Coppice, Hidelow Alders, Astwood or Pimple 
Hill, Harrold's Coppice, Harrold's Orchard. Harrold's Meadow, 
Leitchcroft, Further Leitchcroft, Leitchcroft Coppice, Leitchcroft 
Orchard, Mobbledepleck Orchard, or Mobled Pleck, or Mabled- 
pleckf, Harrell's Gardens, Big Harrells, Little Harrells, Wofrick, 
Coneycut Hill, Bears Woodj, Bears Wood Common, Ridgeway 
Cross, Ridgeway, and Ridgeway Oak. 

The name Cradley is written Credleaie in "Domesday Book," 
and Cyrdesleah in the Anglo-Saxon Charter, No. 755, in the 
" Codex Dip." 

In ACTON BEAUCHAMP there are Yagtree, GoddisPit, Camp 
Coppice, Camp Field, Yeld Coppice, the Yeld, the Croat, Balletts, 
Winthill§, Peppin Hill, Puckhills Coppice, Puckhills Ashbed, 
Puckhills Orles, Puckhills Orchard, Puckhills Field, Puckhills 
Hopyard, Upper Puckhill and Lower Puckhill||. Heming, in 
his " Cartulary," p. 361, notices Hawkeridge, Scot's PathIT, Sal- 
ter's Way, and Elfstan's Grove, as being the boundaries of 
Acton Beauchamp, in the Anglo-Saxon times. See also Nash, 
Vol. ii., App., p. 58. Acton, in "Domesday," spelled "Actune," 
signifies the "Oak-Town. 

In AVENBURY, Herefordshire, there is a place called Big 
Castle Field. 

In ULLINGSWICK, Herefordshire, there are eight pieces of 
land called by the name of Hoarstone ; two called Hoarstone 
Length, and one Hoarstone Piece. Also places called Street-end 
Orchard, Street-end Garden, and Street-end Meadow. 

* There is also a place called Jumper's Hole, in Whelpley Brook, Stanford 
Regis, near Stanford Bishop, Co. Hereford, where there are some of those re- 
markable indentations in the old red sandstone, referred to in my pamphlet 
upon that subject. 

+ See the " Folk-Lore." 

+ See pp. 189, 190. 

§ Perhaps meaning Wins Hill. See the " Folk-Lore." 

|| See the " Folk-Lore." 

Tf Also see " Codex Dip.," No. 570, as to Scotta Paeth. 

S 



258 

In TEDSTONE DELAMERE, in Herefordshire, there are 
Burlip Hill, Pixall or Pixhill, Folly Coppice, Vineyard, the Gob- 
bets, Hoarstone, and Kit Batch*. 

EDVIN LOACH, a detached portion of "Worcestershire, con- 
taining a camp, was formerly called Yedfen, or Yedfen Loges, 
and anciently Edevent. 

In COLLINGTON, Herefordshire, there are Castle Field, 
Castle Meadow, Castle Leasow, Hoarstone Leys, Hoarstone 
Leasow, Hoarstone Piece, Hoarstone Hop-yard, and Hoarstone 
Meadow. 

At THORNBURY, a few miles west of Collington, there is a 
large camp, called Wall Hill Camp. It " has a triple intrench- 
ment, almost perfect, and is supposed to be the work of the 
ancient Britons under Caractacusf :" if so it was doubtless after- 
wards occupied by the Romans, and acquired a Roman name {. 
Its shape also is more Roman than British. See the Ordnance 
Map. 

In BOCKLETON, or Bokelton, in " Domesday" Boclintun, 
there are Upper Quinton and Lower Quinton. 

In LOWER SAPEY, or Sapey Pritchard, named in " Domesday 
Book" Sapie, there are Gospel Green, Ankstry Field, and Tut- 
batch. It is called Sapian in the Anglo-Saxon Charter, No. 142, 
in the " Codex Dip." 

In UPPER SAPEY, Herefordshire, there are Colly, Kintall, 
Callowbrain Orchard, Pouk Lane, Criftin, Sivy Yarn, Warden's 
Grove (in Criftin Farm), and Camp Field. 

In STOKE BLISS (including Little Kyre), which is partly in 
Worcestershire and partly in Herefordshire, there are Camp (in 
Thorn Farm), Camp (in Garmsley), Powk House Meadow and 
Field, Hockeridge, Camp Orchard, Ick Field, Red Castle Or- 
chard and Meadow, Old Wall, and Vineyard. 

In WOLVERLOW, Herefordshire, there are Round Hill, Hare 
Hill, and Slatherbatch. 



* See p. 242, as to this name. 

+ See Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary." 

♦ See pp. 158, 255, 



259 

In HANLEY WILLIAM, or Upper Hanley, in Eastham, 
there are Bowcutt, Bowcutt Field, Upper and Lower Hur Cott, 
Wolf Piece, and the Quob Meadow. This place, in " Domesday," 
is named Hanlege. 

In HANLEY CHILD, or Lower Hanley, in Eastham, there 
are Castle Acre, The Dumps, Impy Orchard, Tuck Hill, Tuck Hill 
Leasow, Upper and Lower Tuck Hill, Yeld Orchard, and Pooten's 
Hole*. In " Domesday Book" it is spelled Henelege. 

KYKE WYRE was anciently called Cure Wyard. In 
" Domesday," Cuer. In Isaac Taylor's Map, there is a place 
called Romen, situated between Kyre and Bockleton. 

TENBURY, Temebury, or Temebyrig, in Worcestershire, was 
anciently called Tametdebirie. In " Domesday," Tamedeberie 
and Tametdeberie. 

In the township of Tenbury there are places called Castle 
Meadow, The Burgage, Round Hill, and Cat Brain. 

In the Foreign of Tenbury there are places called TerriU's 
Orchard, TerriU's Meadow, Dagger's Orchard, Round Bank, and 
Round Hopyard. 

In BERRINGTON, in Tenbury, there are places called Kit 
Castle Orchard, Castle Meadow, Cadmoor Field, and Cadmoor 
Meadow. 

In SUTTON, in Tenbury, there are Round Hill, Nine Holes 
Orchard, Nine Holes Hopyard, Nine Holes Piece, Dicker's Hole, 
Quantrals, Egdon, Big Egdon, Little Egdon -j-, Sitch Meadow, 
Bewell Field, Jacksbutts, The Yells, and Gadnal's Grove. 

The Ordnance Map notices the Castle Tump on the north- 
west side of the town of Tenbury and Callow's Grave J, within a 
mile south of that town. 

Berrington is supposed to have been one of the Anglo-Saxon 
Marks §. 

In BRIMFIELD, Herefordshire, in the line between Tenbury 

* See the " Folk-Lore." 
f See also " Stone." 

I Vide mention of Callow's Leap, in Alfrick, p. 248 ; and in the account of 
the Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove, p. 123 ; and in the " Folk-Lore." 
§ See p. 229. 



260 

and Croft Ambrey, there are Kyle Alley, High Orca, and Camp 
Orchard. 

In ORLETON, Herefordshire, adjoining Brimfield and 
Richard's Castle Parish, there are places called the Portway*, 
Portway Orchard, Portway House, Camp Orchard, Camp Piece, 
Storrel's Stocking, Wolfin's Dens, and Hare's Croft. 

* See Ordnance Map. 



361 



Iter »|||. 



SUPPOSED ANCIENT ROAD FKOM WORCESTER 
TO TENBURY, Ac. 

This supposed road probably went from Worcester*, through 
Oldbury, near Upper Broad Heath, in the parish of St. John, 
(thought to have been the Castra <Bstiva\, or summer quarters of 
the Roman garrison of Worcester) ; thence by Green Street Farm, 
in Hallow, through Wichenford ; by Grimley, Holt, and Little 
Witley, to the Camp at Woodbury Hill, in Great Witley, and 
Cold Camp. It then either crossed the Teme at Stanford, and 
went along the south side of that river through Orleton, Eastham, 
and Rochford, to Tenbury ; or continued from Great Witley along 
the northern side of the river, through Stockton, Pensax, Rock, 
Lindridge, and Knighton, to Tenbury. Both these lines were 
most probably used. 

In the parish of ST. JOHN, in Bedwardine, otherwise 
Beodwardin, there are places called Ridge way Meadow, Stan 
Field, Black Jack's Hole J, The Eight Ridges, Oseby Meadow, 
The Yell, Oldbury, and Hogmore Hill. It is a question whether 
the proper authography of this latter place is not Ogmore, inasmuch 
as there are Ogmore Castle, Ogmor River, Ogmoor Down, Ogor, 
and Ogor River, in Glamorganshire ; Ogwen River, in Carnar 
vonshire; Ogbury Ring§, the parish of Ogbourn St. George, or 

* See pp. 1 to 54, on the ancient British, Roman, and other relics found at 
or near Worcester. 

+ See pp. 34, 35, as to this camp, 

% See the " Folk-Lore." 

§ See Gough's " Camden," second edition, Vo), L, p. 135. 



262 

Great Okeburn ; and Ogbourne St. Andrews, or Little Okeburn, 
in the county of Wilts. These names may either be derived 
from the British word " Ogo," which means a cave, or from 
Ogmius*, the Hercules of the Gauls. The Ogofau Mine, in 
Carmarthenshire, is supposed to have been worked by the 
Bomansf. 

To return to St. John's. In Chap, iv., " Hoar Apple Tree" is 
mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Wyke {, near Doferic, 
(Doveridge), where the Teme joins the Severn ; and " Hoar Ley," 
in the boundaries of Lawern. It is stated, in Heming's " Cartu- 
lary," p. 349, and in Nash's " History," Vol. ii., App., p. 46, 
that on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Clopton there were places 
called Wulfric's Mere, ^Elfric's Mere, The Military Way§, Ceolan 
Way ||, and King's Thane Mere. The " Cartulary," in pp. 135, 349, 
also mentions " Old Street," on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of 
Clopton; and in pp. 161, 349, " Port Street," on the boundaries 
of Lawern 1T. Nash says, that in " Domesday," Clopton (Clop- 
tune) is stated to be held of the manor of Wyke, or Wiche. In 
Heming's " Cartulary," pp. 349, 350, both Clopton and Cothe- 
ridge are described as abutting upon Bridge-bourne Ford ; Clopton 
upon-Lawern, and Teme ; Cotheridge-upon-Teme, and Brain es- 
ford, or Bransford. I mention this, because the name Clopton is 
not now known by the inhabitants of the parish of St. John ; and 

* There are Ogham Stones in the south of Ireland and in Wales, which are 
inscrihed in the Ogham character, supposed to he Druidical. Some have said 
that they are so called from Ogham, the Hercules of the Gauls. See Lady 
Chatterton's work relative to these inscriptions, and also the " Journal of the 
Archaeological Institute," Vol. iii., p. 175; Vol. vii., p. 409; and Vol. ix., 
pp. 116, 117. In the latter number it is said, " The designation Ogham 
Craohh, or branching type, had reference to the supposed resemblance of 
such inscription to a tree ; the letters also, it is said, were named from trees, 
and the inscriptions were either on wooden tablets or on stones." 

+ See the above Journal, Vol. vi., p. 55. 

J See « Codex Dip.," No. 65, 126 and 1358, as to Wick and Lower Wick. 

§ Or Herepath. 

|| Keel- way. 

T[ See " Codex Dip.," No. 126, 126 App., Vol. iii., &c, as to Lawern River 
and No. 272, as to Lawern Wyl (Well). 



263 

in the Index to the " Codex Diplomatics Aevi Saxonici," it is 
considered to mean Clapton, in Gloucestershire. — See the Char 
ters 649, 666, and 724, relative to Cloptun (Clopton), in that very 
valuable work. It is called Cloptone in " Domesday Book." 
With respect to the name " Hoar Apple Tree," it appears that 
apple trees are of very ancient growth in this country, vide 
Whitaker's " History of Manchester," Vol. ii., pp. 49-55. Dr. 
Davis, in his " Celtic Researches," says that the apple tree was 
considered by the Druids the next sacred tree to the oak, and that 
orchards of it were planted by them in the vicinity of their groves 
of oak *. 

In the time of Wolstan, Bishop of Worcester, nick-named 
Reprobate (who lived in the reigns of Ethelred II., Edmund II., 
and Canute), there was a place near Droitwich called Thiccan 
Apel Treo (Thiccan Apple Treef). 

With respect to the name Bedwardine, or Beodwardine, Dr. 
Nash | derives it from the Saxon word Beod [Breod], bread or 
table, and Worthig, a large field or close ; and states that it is 
often corruptly changed into Wardin or Worthen ; and that Beod- 
wardine signifies a portion of ground allotted to supply the table 
of the refectory with provisions. A question, however, may be 
raised, whether the prefix to the name Bedwardine does not come 
from the French " bord," a border, and that it and the suffix 
mean the Bord-worthig, or boundary-field or close of the city. 
The parish of St. Michael, in Bedwardine, is also on the boun- 
dary of Worcester. 

In HALLOW, Hollow, Hallage, or Halnegan, in Grimley, 
adjoining St. John's parish, there are places called Nether Street, 
Little Street, The Camp, Camp Leys, Green Street Farm, Copern 
Pit, Puck Meadow, Green Street Field and Meadow, Princevana 
Meadow, Princevana, Quincehill Vineyard, Estbury, and Henwick 
or Hinwyke§. The name Hallow is spelled Halhagan, in the 

* See " Botanical Looker-Out," by Mr. E. Lees, p. 14. 
+ See Dr. Thomas's " Survey of Worcester Cathedral," &c, A. 60; also 
Chap. iv. of this work, as to several Hoar Apple Trees. 
+ Vol. ii., p. 319. 
§ See Heming's " Cartulary," p. 574. 



264 

44 Codex Dip.," Charter, No. 209, Appendix, Vol. iii., which 
notices Salt Street, Grimeshill, Hoar Apple-tree, Portway, and 
Wontesdic, as boundaries thereof. 

See Chap, iv., as to " Hoar-stone," and " Hoar Apple-tree," 
in this parish. 

In WICHENFORD there is a place called Horsage Orchard. 
See pp. 149, 150, concerning Roman coins found there; and 
hereafter, in Chap. I., on the derivation of the name. 

In GRIMLEY, are Upper, Middle, and Lower Camp Piece ; 
Camp Orles, Camp "Leys, Cobs Orchard, Cobs Coppice ; Robin's 
Acre, The Nokin Piece, Lower Nokin Close, Round Hill, First 
and Second Stitches, Jack Stile Acres, Sturt Orchard, Ridge's 
Top, Okeridge, and Upper Okeridge Field, Ramplis Coppice, 
Wall Batch, Wall Croft, Wire Meadow, Warley, Warley Meadow, 
Wartly Moors ; Big, Upper, and Lower Willtree, and Hares 
Moor. 

This parish is called Grimanleah, Grimanlea, and Grimgelege, 
in Anglo-Saxon charters*. Heming, in his " Cartulary" pp. 
148, 417, notices the Hearpath (Herepath), or Military Way, on 
the boundaries of Grimley. The name is spelled Grimanleh in 
" Domesday Bookf." Dr. Nash says, Grimley means Grimes 
Field J. " Wire" signifies a w T ear; there having been several 
wears on the Severn in days of yore§. 

In HOLT, with LITTLE WITLEY, are Yell Coppice, Hawke- 
ridge || Wood, Battle Well Hopyard, The Baides, Round Hill, 
Turpin Field, Hares Hill Field, Hares Hill Orchard, Hurry's 
Oak, and Quinton. Holt is an Anglo-Saxon word, signifying a 
wood or forest. Holt Fleet, situated by the Severn, is derived 
from the Saxon words, "Holt," a wood, and " Fleot," a running 
stream. 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 266, 266 App., Vol. iii.; 514, 514 App., Vol. vi. ; 
515, 515, App., Vol. iii. ; and 1069 ; also Grimanhyl, No. 466. 

+ " Domesday " also notices Gremanhil. 

+ See p. 150, concerning ancient relics found in this parish ; and also 
" Folk-Lore." 

§ See pp. 34-85. 

II On the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Bentley. — (See " Codex Dip.," No. 
498, 498 App., Vol. iii. ; and 570 ; and Hearing's " Cartulary," Vol. ii., p. 352.) 



265 

In SHRAWLEY there are places called Round Hill, and The 
Folly. Its ancient name was Shraueley. " Immediately below 
Shrawley Court, now a farm-house, are some artificial mounds, 
known by the name of the Court Hills, or Oliver's Mound. They 
were raised to command a ford over the river Severn, and probably 
were occupied by a detachment of Cromwell's army immediately 
previous to the battle of Worcester*." These may have been 
ancient speculatories, referred to in the account of Rochford, near 
Tenbury. 

In GREAT WITLEY, or Whitley, are Yells Meadow, Rad 
Meadow, Worston f, and Woodbury Hill. It was anciently called 
Wittley, Witlega, WitleaJ, and Vecelage ; and in " Domesday," 
Witlege. Woodbury Hill, and Camp, are mentioned in p. 214 ; 
and " Hoar Grave," on the boundaries of Witlinc and 
Hartlebury, in Chap. iv. 

In Heming's " Cartulary," p. 352, there is an account of 
places on the boundaries of Witley, in the Anglo-Saxon times 
called Killan Ridge, Silway, Yerdway, and the Fig-tree. They 
are likewise mentioned by Nash, Vol. ii., App., p. 49 : and the 
" Codex Dip.," No. 682, notices Cyllanhrygc, or Kyllanhrygc. 

The previously-described line of road from the Camps, on the 
Malvern Hills, to Woodbury Hill Camp, probably joined the 
Worcester and Tenbury line of road at or near Woodbury 
Hill. 

In ABBERLEY, near Great Witley, there are Cobs Hole, Hares 
Hill, Upper and Lower Mogul Tree Bank, Little Warders, Sturt 
Piece, Ellbatch Orchard, Far and Near Ellbatch Band, Lower 
Ellbatch Coppice, Upper Ellbatch, Radge Coppice, Catterbatch 
Piece, Catterbatch Meadow ||, The Dotch, Dotch Meadow, Little 
Dotch, The Dots, The Vinne, Vinne Orchard, Big Vinne, Little 
Vinne, Great Viney, Sallens Field Orchard, Sallens Field, 
Coldwell Hill, Coldwell Rough, Coldwell Coppice, and Coldwell 

* Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary." 

f See Isaac Taylors map, published in 1772. 

{ See " Codex Dip.," No. 682. 

§ No. 126, 126 App., Vol. iii., pp. 561, 682, 1369. 

|! There is Catterhall, in Alfriek.— (See Iter vi., pp. 246, 247.) 



266 

Piece*. In " Domesday " it is called Edboldelege. (See an 
account of Abberley Hill, in pp. 214, 215.) 

In STOCKTON, anciently written Stotune, there are places 
named Upper Lousy Oak and Lower Lousy Oak f . 

EOCK. — Dr. Nash describes a service or sorb-tree j, growing 
in this parish, and much venerated on account of its scarcity and 
supposed virtues. I understand that the fruit of it is, even to 
this day, hung up by the peasantry in their houses, under the 
idea of its being a protection against witchcraft. Nash says it is 
vulgarly called the " Quicken Pear-tree," and stands in Wire 
Forest, about a mile from Mopson's Cross, between that and 
Dowles Brook. Mr. Lees has also noticed this tree at some 
length, and given an engraving of it, in his lecture " On the 
Affinities of Plants with Man and Animals," wherein he says it 
is vulgarly called the " Whitty," or " Witten Pear-tree," the 
leaves being similar to those of a withy or willow §. It is said 
the service or sorb-tree was first introduced into Britain by the 
Komans||. 

It has been supposed by some writers that St. Augustine's Oak 
stood in this parish. This point is discussed in my notice of 
Old Storage, Alfrick, and Abberley Hill. Hock was anciently 
called Alwinton, or Aka, from the Saxon " Ac," an oak. There 
is a chapelry in it called Heightmgton. 

In LINDKIDGE there are Toot HillH, Castle Hill, Newnham 
or Neowanham, and Hichen Hill Coppice. It is said there is an 
ancient camp about three miles east of Tenbury, and within about 
half a mile of the Teme. Anciently the orthography of this place 
was peculiarly unsettled, being spelled indifferently, Lindrycg**, 
Linderyge, Linderycgeas, Lindrug, Lindruge, Lindrugge, and 
Lindruggf-j-. It includes Yerdiston, Earston or Eardulveston, 

* See " Malvern," p. 159. 

+ See p. 148, concerning ancient intrenchments there. 

j Vol. i., p. 10, &c. 

§ There is a tree of the kind in the grounds of Upper Arley Castle. 

|| See Whitaker's " History of Manchester," Vol. ii., pp. 49 and 62. 

^T See the general account of the Toot Hills, p. 232, &c. 

** See " Codex Dip.," No. 570. 

+ + See pp. 148, 149, as to an ancient relic found in this parish. 



267 

Knighton or Cnihteton, and Pensax. Duke Wifered, and Alta 
his lady, in Offa's reign, gave lands in Cnihtatan, and Neowenham, 
and Eardulfeston. In " Domesday Book," two of these places 
are called Ardolvestone and Cnihtetone. 

In STANFORD * (vulgo Stamford) there are Crate Lane f, South- 
stone Rock or Southern's Rotch, Devil's Den, and Hell Hole. 
Southstone Rock is a very remarkable mass of travertine or calca- 
reous matter, situated near Stanford Court J, by the river Teme. 
It is noticed by Nash, who likewise mentions the old hermitage that 
was in the rock, and the curious offertory dish § that belonged to 
the chapel which stood on the top of the rock. Sir R. J. 
Murchison has described this rock in his work on the Silurian 
System. It was formed by a strong spring of water, impregnated 
with carbonate of lime, which issues from its summit, and now 
runs down the other side of the mass||. The late Mrs. Sherwood, 
in " Southstone Rock," graphically described the beauties of the 
district, and the interesting legendary story of the supposed witch 
of the Black Wood, or Devil's Den, in the time of Richard Coeur 
de Lion. The Den lies about a mile and a half from the her- 
mitage, and is thus described by Mrs. Sherwood : — " The Black 
Wood was a narrow dell, deeply enclosed in entangled woods, 
lying parallel with the valley of Southstone, yet somewhat lower 
down the stream. The country people, to this day, give it names 
which commemorate its former evil character. The Devil's Den 
is the mildest of the epithets bestowed on this sequestered scene." 
There is a remarkable place called Witchery Hole in the ad- 
joining parish of Shelsley Walsh, otherwise Little Shelsley, which 
will be more particularly noticed in the " Folk-Lore. " 

With respect to Hell Hole, there are many remarkable holes 
and places with such a prefix in the county ; for instance, Hell 

* The name is written Stanford, in the " Codex Dip.," No. 509, 509 App., 
Vol. hi. ; and Stanford, in " Domesday Book." 

+ See Alfrick, Iter vi., p. 239. 

I The seat of Sir Thomas Edward Winnington, Bart. 

§ Also see the " Eambler in Worcestershire," published 1851, pp. 174, 175. 

j| Within a mile of the south-west side of the rock there is a place called the 
Camp, which is said to be British. 



268 

Hole Meadow, in Doverdale ; Hell Hole, in the parish of Elmley 
Castle ; Hell Hole and Hell Hole Meadow, in Hampton Lovett ; 
Hell Ford, in Crome Dabitot ; Hell Hole, in Knighton-on-Teme, 
near Tenbury; Hell Patch, in Upton Warren; Hell Hole, in 
Astley ;■ Hell Church, in Clent ; Hell Bank, between Stourbridge 
and Hales Owen ; Hell Hole, in Warley Wigorn ; Hell Hole, in 
Shelsley Beauchanrp, or Great Shelsley ; Hell Hole Coppice, in 
Clifton-on-Teme ; and Hell Kitchen, in Newbold-on-Stour. In 
" The Kambler in Worcestershire," by Mr. John Noake, pub- 
lished in 1851 *, it is stated, that in " Hell Hole" (the place in 
question), " grows the plant called ' Devil's bit,' or, succisa 
pratensis. Tradition says that this plant was given to heal man 
of any deadly wounds ; but that when Satan saw what numbers 
of the human race it deprived him of, he, in spite, bit the roots 
off, whereupon it miraculously grew without those usually neces- 
sary appendages ; and this is the reason we find it growing 
apparently without roots." 

In the hamlet of ORLETON, in the parish of Eastham, 
there are ten pieces of land called Wall Hill ; likewise, 
a piece called Pendock Meadow. It w r as anciently written 
Arleton or Horeleton ; and, in " Domesday," Alretune. 

In EASTHAM, or Esthamf, there are places called Bonfire 
Hill, Round Hill, Quince Hill, Ridgeway, and Castle Tump 
Meadow. 

In ROCHFORD there are Vigo Meadow, Vigo Coppice. 
Camp, Camp Ashbed, Debdat Orchard, The Haggotts, Rome Hill, 
Tumpy Piece, Round Hill, Curter's Wall, The Gobbets, The 
Whurnhups, The Yeld, The Yeld Ashbed, Hardion Piece and 
Hardion Orchard. Rochforcl was a detached part of Hereford- 
shire, but has been annexed to Worcestershire by the Reform 
Bill. It is said, in a little history of Tenbury, that, in a meadow 
close to Rochford churchyard there still exists a green mound on 
the river bank j, thought to be the site of one of those forts called 
arces speculator ice, raised upon convenient spots for watch and 
ward. 

* P. 192. + " Domesday Book." 

I There is a ford adjoining. 



269 

In MAMBLE, at Soddington, ancient relics have been 
found*. In " Domesday" it is called Mamele. 

In BAYTON, there is a place called Norgroves-end Farm. 

In KNIGHTON, or Cnihtatun-on-Teme, there are places called 
Cearn Owl, Mancroft, Hell Hole, Darnhill Orchard, Darnhill 
Homestead, Over Sale Meadow, Over Sale Field, Kit Laughton, 
and Upper Aston. Dr. Nash, in Vol. ii. of his " History," 
p. 437, says, the name Knighton means " the town of soldiery." 

ANCIENT CAMPS ON THE NORTHERN SIDE OF 
THE COUNTY. 

Most of the camps which lie on or near the northern side of 
the county, have previously been described in the account of the 
various parishes in which they are situated, such as those at 
Wichbury Hill, Clent Hill, Stourbridge Common, Kenvaur Edge, 
Wassal Hill, or Wars Hill, and Over Arley. In addition to these, 
we may add a camp laid down in the Ordnance Map, on the north 
side of Wolverley, near High Holbro' ; and another called Camp 
Hill, near Birmingham. 

* Vide pp. 146, 147, 148. 



370 



Iter If. 



ANCIENT ROAD FROM DROITWICH TO 
STOURBRIDGE. 

There is a line of road (mentioned in pp. 109, 110 of this 
work) which runs from Droitwich, by Hampton Lovett and 
Doverdale, through Elmbridge, Rushock, Chaddesley Corbett, 
Bluntington, Tan Wood Common, and across the valley at Hill 
Pool (where there formerly existed a viaduct), and then by Bel- 
broughton, and through Brome, Clent, and the south side of 
Hagley parish, and over Harborough Common*, and through 
Pedmore and Old Swinford, to Stourbridge Common, and the 
camp called " The Church-yard," situate by Green's Forge. In 
one part, this road is called the King's Head Land. 

The following names occur in this line : — 

In HAMPTON LOVETT there are places called Hell Hole, 
Hell Hole Meadow, and Egg Hill. It was anciently called Han- 
tone, Hanton, and Hante ; and, in " Domesday Book," Hamtune. 

In DOVERDALE there are Hell Hole Meadow and Round 
Hill. It was anciently called Lunuredale, and Doudale ; and, in 
" Domesday," Lunuredele. The name of this place is supposed 
to have been derived from the British words, " Dur " (water), and 
" Dal " (a valley), which are faithfully descriptive of its situation, 
in a well- watered valef. In the Anglo-Saxon times, the name 
was spelled Doferdsel and Douerdel J. 

In ELMBRIDGE (a chapelry situated in Doderhill, in the 

* There is an intrenchment at Harborough Hill. 

f Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary." 

X See " Codex Dip.," No. 56, 56 App., Vol. iii., 1355, 1366. 



271 

parish of Droitwich) there are places named Holbro' Ground, Great 
Caterans Hill, Caterns Hill, Kit Pit, and Kadnal Field. In 
" Domesday Book," it is spelled Elmerige. 

In EUSHOCK there are Bumble Hole, Oldbury, Big, Little, 
Middle, and Far Oldbury; Wassal's Meadow, Jack Meadow, 
Camp Close, Wattlestitch Meadow, Big Trench, Little Trench, 
North and South Conderlands, Radnall, and Aston Field. It 
was anciently written, Rixuc * and Rushoke Begis ; and, in 
" Domesday," Russococ. 

In CHADDESLEY CORBETT there are places named Tan 
Wood, Tan Wood Meadow, Lower Tan Wood Meadow, Tan Wood 
Field, Tin Meadow, Cannages Moor, Hackerage, Bagnett, The 
Dole, Burnt Oak, Judy's Close, Blizzardines, Hobf Moor, Har 
borough Ash, Rattlestones, Warstone, Little Warstone, The 
Warrage, Dead Moor, Far and Near Lincridge, Lincridge 
Meadow, Cakebole Pool, Near and Far Cakebole Meadow, Robin 
Hood's Oak, Yes Hill, Tagbourne, Sharrow Point, Astwood Hill 
and Meadow, Barrow Hill, Barrow Hill Field, Barrow Hill Lane 
Field, Far Long Barrow Field, Long Barrow Field, Little Barrow 
Field, Cross Barrow Field, Ran Dan Woods, Tatton Hill, and 
Dobies. 

Chaddesley was formerly called Chadsley, Ceadresleaghe, and 
Caddeslai ; in " Domesday," Cedeslai. See further, as to this 
parish, p. 124, &c. . 

In Cakebold, in Chaddesley Corbett, there are Hither, Further, 
and Upper Tin Meadow. 

In BELBROUGHTON there are Hanging Hill, Barrow's Croft, 
Round Hill, Tom Hills, Belsey Field, Radnall Pit, Bonfire Hill, 
Big, Little, Middle, and Burnt Lights, Dane Field, Wall Hill 
Strip, Little and Great Chenil, Ran Dan Woods, and Cakebold \. 

In BROOME there is a place called Castle Hedge. 

In CLENT there are places named Saltpit Piece, Upper Worgen, 
Lower Wargen, Hill Church, Kitwell Meadow, Warstone, The 
Beacon Hill, Little Beacon Hill, Upper, Middle, and Lower Tin 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 508, 508 App., Vol. iii. 

+ See the " Folk-Lore." 

\ See p. 135, relative to Roman relics found in this parish. 



272 

Fields, and Castle Hill *. Dr. Nash suggests that the name 
Clent is a corruption of the British word " glenn ;" and adds, 
that the Cornish " glyn," the Irish " gleann," and the Saxon 
" glen," all agree with the British " glenn," in denoting a 
narrow valley or dingle encompassed with a wood. 

CHURCHILL f, near Kidderminster, was anciently called 
Cercehall, Cercehalle, and Chirchehylle ; and, in " Domesday," 
Cercehalle. 

In HAGLEY there are Dead Marsh, Hoar Stone, Big and 
Little Hoar Stone, The Goers, Wichbury Hill, Round Hill Wood, 
Beacon Hill Meadow, Harberrow Field and Common, Nail Den, 
First and Second Wassail Piece, Wassail Field, and Big and 
Lower Stitchings. This parish was often spelled Haggelegh. 
In " Domesday Book " it is written Hageleia ; and in the 
" Codex Dip.," No. 570, Haganleah. The name is derived 
from the Saxon, Haga (domus), said Leag, or Lega, a lea, 
or leyj. 

In PEDMORE there are Upper Spirits Field, and Wichbury 
Hill. Pedmore was anciently written Pevemore. 

In HALES OWEN there are Moors (or Mours) Street, and 
The Coombs. This place was formerly written Hales and 
Halas §. 

In the township of WARLEY WIGORN, in Hales Owen 
(anciently written Werwelie) there are Hell Hole, Caldwell Leasow, 
First Quinton Field, Upper Quinton Field, Lower Quinton, 
Bearlands Wood, Bearsland, Upper and Lower Bearsland, and 
Hobby Kiss. 

In the township of RIDGACRE, in Hales Owen, are places 
named Aldridge Meadow and First Quinton Field. 

In the township of WARLEY SALOP, in Hales Owen, is a 
place called Part of Portway Field. 

* See pp. 137, 138, relative to ancient British and Roman antiquities 
found in Clent. 

+ There is another Churchill, near Bredicot. 

I Vide pp. 136 to 142, relative to Roman and other antiquities found in 
this parish. 

§ See pp. 142, 143, as to various ancient relics found in this parish. 



•273 

In the township of CAKEMORE, in Hales Owen, is Dogney's 
Meadow. " In 1804, many Roman coins were found in an 
earthen vessel, deposited at a small depth below the surface, at 
Cakemore ; but few only of these coins were preserved*." 

In the township of ASBURY, in Hales Owen, there are Jack 
Field, Little Jack, Old Jack, and Tom Wood. 

In the township of HALES OWEN there is a place called 
Tenter Field. 

InLUTTLEY, in Hales Owen, there are Pen Field, Twizzle- 
batch, and Robin's Field. 

In CRADLEY (anciently Cradelei), a township in Hales Owen, 
there are Warling Meadow, and Coppy (Coppice) Warling. 

In ROMSLEY, a township in Hales Owen, there are Long 
Doles, Great Castle Hill, Castle Hill, Uffmoor, Old Battery 
Meadow, Quinton Piece, and Ell Wood. 

In OLD SWINFORD there is a place called Ambry Hill. 
Bishop Lyttelton f states that this place was so called from a ford 
over a brook or rivulet named SwinJ; but Dr. Nash§ doubted 
that opinion. May it not have been the ford for swine ? 

STOURBRIDGE PARISH was originally called Bedcote. 
There are Hill Bank and Hob Green between it and Hales Owen. 

In the hamlet of AMBLECOATE, in the Staffordshire part 
of Old Swinford, there are Powkmore|| Hill, Hares Close, Bolas 
Meadow, Bolas Piece, High Oldbury, Petre Hill, Round Hill, and 
Babylon. 

This line of road is referred to by NashU, who quotes the 
following from Bishop Lyttelton's account of the Roman roads : — 

" A third Roman road comes out of Salop or Staffordshire, and 
passes over the heath near Stourbridge, where, by a place called 
Greens Forge, is a vast camp called the Church Yard, and men- 

* See Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary." 
+ MS., Lyttel. 

| There is also the Swin, in the sea, off the Suffolk coast. Can it he 
synonymous with the word " swill." 
§ Vol. ii., p. 20. 
|| See the " Folk-Lore." 
•I Vol. ii. App., p. 107. 

T 



274 

tioned by Dr. Plott in his ' Natural History of Staffordshire,' 
which proceeds through Hagley Common, and is known by the 
name of the King's Head Land ; and not far distant is a great 
Koman camp on Whichbury Hill*, and three lows or tumuli on 
the common very near it ; and I suspect this road also leads by 
Clent and Chaddesley to Worcester." 

It is probable that this road either ran in a north-westerly 
course into the Western Trackway, described in Iter XV. ; or, 
north-east into the Eycknield Street, described in Iter XIX. 

ANCIENT CAMPS ON THE SOUTHERN SIDE OF 
THE COUNTY. 

The following are the ancient camps along or near the southern 
side of the county, from west to east : — 

Wall Hills Camp, and Kilbury Camp f , near Ledbury ; Haf- 
field Camp, near Bromsberrow ; The Herefordshire Beacon Camp, 
and Midsummer Hill Camp, on the Malvern Hills ; Castle Hill 
Camp, in Castle Morton ; and the camps on Towbury Hill, 
Kemerton Hill, Conderton Hill, Oxenton Hill, Dixton Hill, and 
Nottingham Hill. Several of these have been previously noticed. 

ANCIENT ROADS ON THE SOUTHERN SIDE OF 
THE COUNTY. 

The following are the probable lines of the ancient roads along 
or near the southern side of the county. The starting point of 
all of them may be taken from Wall Hills Camp, near Ledbury, 
from whence they issued in four principal lines as follow. 

* There also is a camp at Kniver Edge. — See p. 144. 
+ The Ordnance Map has it " Eilbury Camp." 



275 



Iter f ♦ 
ANCIENT EOAD 

FROM 

WALL HILLS CAMP TO GLOUCESTER. 

Fkom this camp a road appears to have stretched south- 
westward by Ledbury, Eastnor, and Haffield Camp, in Hereford- 
shire (situated about two miles west of Conigree Hill*, in 
Bromsberrow, in Gloucestershire), thence by Rid Marley 
Et'Abitot to Gadbury Banks, and Bury Hill, in Eldersfield; 
thence by Birth Hill, and along Lime Street, in Worcestershire ; 
across Corse Wood Hill, along Wickridge Street, by the Barrow 
Farm, and Barrow Hill, to Cinderbury ; Ashelworth Green, 
Longridge End, and thence by Springhill and Maisemore, in 
Gloucestershire, to Gloucester. A branch of this road may have 
gone from Gadbury Banks to Staunton Coppice, thence to 
Staunton in Worcestershire, along Harridge or Harwich Street, 
and so to Wickeridge Street in Gloucestershire. 

In LEDBURY parish there are, — Vineyard Bank, The Camp, 
Suggals, Wall-ends Meadow, Vineyard and Oldbury, Warcroft, 
Wall Hills Wood and Coppice, Wall Moors, Rigdeway Field and 
Coppice, Oral Green Meadow, Stirt's Meadow, Coneybur}^ Hill, 
Coneygree Wood Camp, Camp Hopyard, Camp Orchard, and 
Hare Hill. 

The camp at Wall Hills, which contains an area of near 
thirty acres, is situated about a mile from Ledbury, and is sup- 
posed to have been originally British, and subsequently occupied 
as a Roman station. Ledbury appears to have derived its name 

* See pp. 70, 71, 218, relative to this remarkable hill. 



276 

from the river Leden, which intersects the parish from north to 
south. 

In KID MAELEY, or Ryd Marley D'Abitot, there are Nottin 
Dole, Dark-ham, and Folly Field. It was formerly called Rid 
Merleya*, and in " Domesday Book," Redmerleie or Ridmerleye. 
In Heming's " Cartulary," it is stated, that, in the Anglo-Saxon 
times, there were places on the boundaries of Rydmerley, called 
Preonsdale, Salter's Ford, The Glenk, Glenking, Maeresbrook, 
Ceolan Head, Brute Gate, and Werlass Down. Nash calls 
Rid Marley " the field with the mere ;" but, as the ancient 
British and Phoenician word " Rid" means a fordf, the presump- 
tion is, that the name implies a ford ; and there can be but little 
doubt that, in the ancient British times, a ford was there over 
the river Leden, which very much surrounds Rid Marley. It is 
probable, that in the Anglo-Saxon era it acquired the name of 
" Salter's Ford." 

In ELDERSFIELD there are,— Tut's Hill Common Field, 
Little Tut's Hill, Dobbs Hill Meadow and Close, Cob Hill, Gadbury 
Hill, Gadbury Coppice, Eggs Hay, and Hardwick, or Ordewicke. 
— See p. 68, 69, as to Gadbury Banks. The name of this parish is 
probably derived from elder, an elder tree, and field, an open, 
uninclosed expanse of land. It is called Yldresfeld in the 
" Codex Dip.," No. 570. 

In STAUNTON, or Stauntown, there are Walker's \ Ford, and 
Cob Croft. 

In CHASELEY, or Chadesley, adjoining Eldersfield, there are 
Norgast Field; Great, Middle, and South Norgast Field; Round 
Hill, The Yellings, The Gorne Field, and The Leys, next Rock 
Street §. 

* Reodemaereleah and Rydemaereleah in " Codex Dip.," No. 510 ; 510 
App., Vol. iii., and 619. 

f See " Britannia Antiqua," by Aylett Sammes, p. 66 ; also the account of 
Cruckbarrow Hill. 

% See Droitwich, p. 100, and Oughton Wells, in tbe account of " Folk- 
Lore," concerning this word. 

§ See Chap. IV. as to Horridge (Hoar Ridge) in the neighbouring hamlet 
of Corse, Co. Gloucester. 



277 



Star $< 



ANCIENT EOAD 

FKOM 

WALL HILLS CAMP, NEAR LEDBURY, TO 
TEWKESBURY, &c. 

Feom Wall Hills Camp a road appears to have stretched 
westward by Dog's Hill and Ledbury, to Kilbury Camp, and the 
Herefordshire Beacon Camp on Malvern Hill; thence, south- 
eastward, down Awkeridge and the Ridgeway, and by Eastnor ; 
thence along Wain Street* to Rowicke, Fowlet Farm, and Pen- 
dock Grove, — all in Herefordshire. From thence through the 
Makern Hill chain into Worcestershire, at White-leaved Oak 
between Ragged Stone Hill and Keysend Hill ; and, southward, 
along Keysend or Case-end Street, to Camer's or Camomile 
Green; thence along the Pendock Portwayf, in the Berrow, to 
Cromar's Green ; thence to Gadbury Banks J, in Eldersfield ; 
thence, north-eastward, through Pendock, and between Bushley, 
in Worcestershire, and Forthampton, in Gloucestershire, by Sarn 
Hill, and along Wood Street, in Bushley, to the Severn (which 
was probably crossed either at the Mythe Tute, or at the Upper 
or Lower Lode) ; and, thence on to the Rycknield Street, at or 
near Tewkesbury. 

With respect to the name of " Wain Street," considerable light 
appears to be thrown upon it in Hatcher's " Richard of Ciren- 

* There was in the Anglo-Saxon times a place called Waenric (Wainridge) , 
in Oxfordshire. — See " Codex Dip.," No. 775, &c. 
t See p. 70. 
X See pp. 68, 69. 



278 

cester," from which the following quotation is taken*: — " The 
Britons not only fought on foot and on horseback, but in chariots 
drawn by two horses, and armed in the Gallic manner. Those 
chariots, to the axletrees of which scythes were fixed, were called 
covini, or wains." And, in p. 12, it is stated, that " Caesar, in 
his fourth book, describes their mode of fighting in the species of 
chariots called essedae," and to which the following note is 
added : — " Their chariots seem to be of two kinds, the covini or 
wains, heavy and armed with scythes, to break the thickest order 
of the enemy ; and the essedae, a lighter kind, adapted probably 
to situations and circumstances in which the covini could not 
act, and occasionally performing the duties of cavalry. The 
essedae, with the cavalry, were pressed forward to oppose the first 
landing of Caesar ; and Cassivellaunus afterwards left 4000 
essedae, as a corps of observation, to watch his movements. — 
Caesar " Comment.," Lib. v., s. 15. 

In THE BERROW, formerly Berewe or Berga, there are 
Berrow Hill, Puck Dole, In Portridge Field, Little Portridge, 
Portnells, In Picknell, In Jack, Upper and Lower Jack, Jack 
Meadow, Jack, In Gola Field, Old Hills, Crookberrow, Lower 
Crookberrow, Black Dole, Elsborough, Penalth Piece, Raven's 
Dole, Dobbin's Hill, Little Dobbin's HiU, Gowler, and Oldin Hill J. 

In PENDOC, or Pendock, Pendoke, Penedoc, or Peonedoc, 
there are Waxborough, Wilkin's Pasture, Wilkin's Field, Little 
Wilkin, In Berrow Wood, Badenshall, Allotment in Berrow 
Meadow, Catshill, Little Catshill, Raven's Hay, Upper Nap 
Ground, Nap Field, Lower Nap Field, Little Gola, In Gola 
Field, Inclosed Gola, and Crookberrow. 

In Dr. Thomas's " Survey of Worcester Cathedral, &c," App.,p. 
30, reference is made to a bequest of Peonedoc by Ceolwulf, King of 
the Mercians, to the Monastery at Worcester j. This is mentioned 
in a charter of King Edgar, a.d. 964. On the Anglo-Saxon 
boundaries of Pendoc, there are places called iElfstan's Bridge, 

* P. 11. 

+ See p. 70 ; likewise the account of Cruckbarrow Hill, relative to the Pen- 
dock Portway. 

X Also see Heming's " Cartulary," p. 331. 



279 

Osric's Pool, Ducas Pit, Edred's Field*, Stanborough, and Salt 
Field f. This place is spelled Peonedoc and PenedocJ in 
" Domesday Book." With respect to the derivation of the name, 
the reader is referred to p. 218. 

BUSHLEY was formerly called Bysseley, and in "Domesday" 
Biseleye§. 

* It is called Eadredesfeld (qy. Addersfield) in the " Codex Dip." No. 308, 
308 App. Vol. iii., and 538. 

+ See Heming's " Cartulary," p. 360, and Nash, Vol. ii., App., p. 57. 
Also see Chap, iv., relative to " Hour Withy," in Pendock. 

I There is a place called Pendock Meadow, in the hamlet of Orleton, in the 
parish of Eastham. 

§ See p. 128, concerning Sarn Hill and Wood Street, in this parish. 




280 



!tar £3 



ANCIENT ROAD 



WALL HILLS CAMP TO TOWBUKY HILL CAMP, Ac. 

From Wall Hills Camp a road appears to have gone south- 
westward by Ledbury, Eastnor, across the Ridgeway, and along 
Wain Street, in Herefordshire ; through the Malvern chain, 
into Worcestershire, by the Holly Bush, between Ragged Stone 
Hill and the south side of Midsummer Hill Camp, thence to 
the Rye, thence eastward along the Rye Street, and through 
Birt's Morton, Longdon and Queen Hill, to Pull Court, on the 
west side of the Severn, opposite to which, on the eastern side of 
the river, is the site of the Roman pottery works*, and an 
ancient vicinal paved roadf at Bow Farm, Ripple, and a camp at 
Towbury Hill J, in Twining Parish, Gloucestershire. The river 
was probably crossed opposite Towbury Hill, the road in question 
falling into another road which runs from Tewkesbury to Wor- 
cester. 

Another branch of this road extended from Wain Street, by 
Gullett Wood, and through the pass named the Gullett, which 
lies between the north end of Midsummer Hill and the south end 
of Warren Hill; thence by Fair Oaks Hill, across Holly-bed 
Common, and along Birt's Street to Birt's Morton. 

* See p. 62, 63, 64. 
t See p. 65, 66. 

{ As to this remarkable hill, see p. 64. There are places called Great Tow- 
bury and Little Towbury, iu Leigh. 



281 

In BIRT'S MORTON, or Brutes Morton, are Spark Horn, 
and Tunipy Leasow. In " Domesday Book," this place is written 
Mortune. 

In CASTLE MORTON, adjoining Birt's Morton, are Vamperley 
Field, Vamperley Meadow, Aldine Meadow, Budnil (Buddenhill) 
Common Field, the Doles, Dole's Hole, Hagg Hills, Agg Meadow, 
Ambers, Stoned Hole, Great Gog Bridge, Little Gog Bridge, 
Tadmoor, Inkstones*, Camp Hill, Gadbury Hill, and Kittans. 

It was formerly called Morton Folliotf. See p. 71, where a 
tumulus, there called " Castle Tump," is mentioned. 

In LONGDON, anciently Longedon, are Stirts Middle Piece. 
Yelters, Rugged Nell, Robert 's-end Orchard, Doles, Hare Plock 
(Pleck), Hare Bridge, Occo, Guller's End, Hurste, and the Styrte. 
See Chap, iv., as to Hoar Pit, in this parish. In " Domesday Book" 
it is called Longedune, and in Anglo-Saxon charters, Langdun, 
Langandun, Lengandune, and Longedune J. 

* See Inkberrow, Iter XVII. 

f See pp. 71, 72, concerning Morton Folliot seal. 

I See " Codex Dip.," No. 57, 57 App., Vol. iii., &c. 




282 



Jm j J J J. 



ANCIENT KOAD 



WALL HILLS CAMP AND THE HEREFORDSHIRE 
BEACON CAMP TO UPTON, OR THE SAXON'S 
LODE. 



THE HEREFORDSHIRE BEACON CAMP TO HANLEY 

QUAY. 

FROM 

GREAT MALVERN TO THE RHYD. 

Feom Wall Hills Camp a road appears to have gone along the 
before-mentioned line, over Dog's Hill to Kilbury Camp, and the 
Herefordshire Beacon Camp ; thence eastward into Worcester- 
shire, on the south side of Dane Moor Copse, and along Drake 
Street, by Brook End, and the Lake on Hook Common ; thence 
along Duckswick to the Severn, which it probably crossed either 
at Upton or more southward, at Saxon's Lode, vulgo, Saxton's 
or Sexton's Lode. 

Another road seems to have extended from the Herefordshire 
Beacon Camp, by Malvern Wells, along Robert's-end Street 
(otherwise Robertson Street) and through Hanley Castle parish 
to Hanley Quay, where it probably crossed the Severn. 

A road likewise appears to have run from Great Malvern, along 



283 

Pool-End Street and Barnard's Green, by Dripshill or Tripshill*, 
and Drake's Place to the Ferry or Ford at the Khydd or Riddf. 

In COL WALL there is a place called the Low, and a road called 
Evendine Street. See further relative to this parish in the 
account of the Malvern Hills. 

In LITTLE MALVERN there are Upper Sarte Piece and 
Lower Sarte Piece J. See p. 154 to 163, &c. concerning various 
ancient relics found in this parish. 

In WELLAND there is a place called Tyre Hill (situated 
between Dane Moor Copse and Robertson or Robertsend Street) ; 
also Dain Moor Hill and Five Hill Field. It was anciently called 
Wenlond, or Wonlond. Dr. Nash supposes the name to have 
been derived from the Saxon " Won," dirty ; but may it not be 
a contraction of Woten ? 

In the parish of UPTON § upon Severn, there are Mount ||, 
Raven Hill IT, Leckeridge, Lockeridge ; Upper, Middle, and 
Lower Tuck-Mill Piece, Gilver Lane Meadow, Monsul, Hoote 
Common, Mancroft, Bury Field, Brants, Talver's Field, Talver's 
Ley, Perlons Close, Great Pickes, and Little Pickes**. 

In the parish of HANLEY CASTLE are Great Tickeridge, 
Launtridge, and Robert's-end Street. This parish is named 
Hamley in Lelands " Itinerary." 

In the parish of GREAT MALVERN there are Quorn Meadow, 
Hob Well ff, Twinberrow }{, Gorick Hill, Sembre Furlong, Shar- 
vastor or Sharvaster, Sharvest Graffe, Upper Radnor Meadow, 
Lower Radnor Pasture, Bearcroft Meadow (in Garlesford Court 
Farm), and Cockshoot, Cockshute, or Cockshut Orchard, Lane, 
and Farm, at the Link. 

* See the " Folk-Lore." + See p. 218. 

| These names, most probably, are a corruption of the word " assart," or 
" essart," which means land grubbed in a forest and converted into tillage. 

§ It is written Uptun in the " Codex Dip.," No. 65, &c. 

|| There is an earthwork near it in Green Fields estate. 

If See p. 194, &c. 

** See pp. 60, 61, 62, concerning ancient relics found there. 

++ See Gough's " Camden." 

H Twinbarrow, vidgo, Twinberrow, is situated about a quarter of a mile 
northward of the Moat Farm, in Barnard's Green. See pp. 166, as to the 
derivation of the name. 



284 » 

There is Radnal Field, in Elmbridge, in Doderhill ; Radnal 
Pit, in Belbroughton ; Rad Meadow, in Claines ; Rad Meadow, 
in Hindlip ; Rad Castle Orchard and Meadow, in Stoke Bliss ; 
Radge Coppice, in Abberley, Radnall, in Rushock ; Radbury 
Bank, in Martley ; and Rad Meadow, in Great Witley*. These 
names are probably derived from the Saxon " rasd," council. 

It is said that the name " Cock-shoot," probably designates the 
places where springes or nets were set to catch woodcocks f ; and 
that the syllable " shoot," means the hole or gap in the bank or 
hedge through which the woodcocks either ran or fled into the 
springe or net. Now it must be observed that the springs of water 
from North Malvern Hill, run by the spot in question, and it was 
a very likely place in days of yore to be frequented by woodcocks. 
Still, however, spouts or cocks for water-shoots, vulgo shuts J, at 
the bottom ofTiills, banks, or slopes, may possibly have given rise 
to some of the names in question ; for instance, there is Cock- 
shute, by Dormston Hill ; Cockshoot Hill, in Hadsor, near Droit- 
wich ; Cockshut§ Hill, in Lulsley ; and Cockshoot Hill at Shels- 
ley Beauchamp. But as these localities, even if they have or had 
spouts, would be equally favourable for woodcocks, it is probable 
that the first-mentioned derivation is, in some such cases, the 
primary one ; and when Shakespeare speaks of " cockshut time||" 
he probably refers to the twilight, when woodcocks IF run or fly 

* A place called Radborough was one of the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of 
Codeston or Cutsdean, and Kadley of Whittington. See Heming's " Cartu- 
lary," Vol. ii., pp. 348, 359. 

+ See the "Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. v., pp. 118 to 
121. 

% The peasantry call those channels made to carry rain water off ploughed 
lands " land shuts," and natural rills " water shuts." Thus a spring with a 
spout at the foot of a hill or slope, would, in common language, be a " cock- 
shut." There is one on the side of the Malvern road, just above Cockshut 
Farm. 

§ Cockshut is also a personal name. See Nichols's " History of Leicester- 
shire," Vol. iv., Part 2, p. 524. 

|| Richard III., Act v., Scene 3. 

*\ Almost all classes in the country, when speaking of woodcocks, scarcely 
ever use the prefix. 



•285 

out of the covers, and were caught at the shoots in the springes or 
nets. 

In MADKESFIELD, Maddersfield, or Madersfield*, there are 
places named Stamperfield, Stampal or March Field, Dripshill or 
Tripshillf, and Cleve Lode or Clyve Lode. 



* Perhaps from the Saxon " madere," a plant. This parish does not ap- 
pear to be noticed in " Domesday Book." 
t See the " Folk-Lore." 



286 



Iter fp. 



PORT-WAY FROM KENCHESTER, THE 
ANCIENT MAGNA*, 

THBOUGH 

CRADLEY, ACROSS THE NORTH END OF GREAT 
MALVERN HILL TO BRANOGENA (WORCESTER), 
AND THENCE THROUGH OMBERSLEY, HARTLE- 
BURY, AND WOLVERLEY, TO OVER ARLEY. 

Duncumb, in his " History of Herefordshire,"! says, " a third 
Roman road enters this county [Herefordshire] from Worcester, 
and passing Frome Hill, Stretton Gransham (Grandison), Lugg- 
bridge, Holmer, and Stretton Lugwas, reaches Kenchester. This 
road is wholly unnoticed in the Itineraries before quoted; 
but Dr. Stukeley treats it as Roman, and its own internal evi- 
dence confirms it. Two Strettons are named in its course, and 
it invariably preserves that particular uniformity of direction 
which distinguishes the roads constructed by that people. Several 
writers mention an entrenchment on this line, at Stretton j Gran- 
dison, — it was probably Roman ; but in that, and other instances 
where the site has been appropriated to the more useful labours 
of the plough, the traces have been gradually obliterated." 

It is also stated, in the " Beauties of England and Wales" §, 
that there is a paved way from Kenchester, leading to a passage 

* See p. 1, as to the opinion of some antiquaries that Ariconiiun was the 
ancient name of Kenchester. 

+ Vol. i., p. 29. See also " Topographical and Historical Description of 
Herefordshire," by Brayley and Britton, p. 406. 

I The name Stretton is derived from " Via Strata," or the street. 

§ Vol. 15, Part 2, p. 6. 



287 

over the river Lug, and thence towards Ledbury, pointing to 
Worcester, supposed to be Roman. 

This road is also thus noticed in Gough's " Camden"*: — 
" Ariconiumf [querie Magna] stands on a little brook called the 
Ince, which thence encompassing the walls of Hereford, falls into 
the Wye. Two great Roman ways here cross each other ; one, 
called the Port- way, comes from Bullseum, now Buelt J, in Breck- 
nockshire, and passing eastward by Kenchester through Stretton, 
to which it gives name, and over the river Lug to Stretton 
Grantham, upon the Frome, goes to Worcester." 

The line of this road, from Frome Hill to Worcester, most 
probably was by Cradley Court, Ridgeway Cross, and over the 
brook at Stifford's Bridge (all in Cradley §, Herefordshire), thence 
through Cowley Park, Upper Howsell, in the parish of Leigh ||, 
Newland, and Powick, across the Teme, and through Upper Wick, 
in the parish of St. John, to Worcester. 

In the parish of NEWLAND (formerly a hamlet of Great Mal- 
vern) there are places called Little Ridgeway, Campson, Long Dole, 
Limburrow, and Jack's Close. Pins Green lies on the border. 

In POWICK, or Powycke, are Pykesham or Pixam; Moan 
Land, in Pixham's Ham; Big Stampall Ground, Oldneys, Old 
Hills, Callow-end, Stoney Lake ; Rudgeway, or Ridgeway Ham, 
or Common Field ; Ridgeway, Great and Little Ridgeway, Puck- 
croft, Astridge, Soar Oak Field, Bear-croft, or Ashridge Hill, The 
Vineyard, and Cinders Perry. The name of this parish is spelled 
Poincgwic in the " Codex Dip.," No. 570, and Poiwic in 
" Domesday Book*!." 

The pieces of land named Ridgeway belong to the Ridgeway 

* Vol. iii., p. 73. 

+ The prevailing opinion now is, that Ariconium stood at Penyard, near 
Ross, and that Magna means Kenchester. 

I With respect to the derivation of this name, see " Bewdley." There is a 
hill called Bual, or Bewill, in Alfrick (see p. 247), on the line of road from 
Walls Hill Camp and Malvern Hills, to Woodhury Hill.— See p. 238. 

§ See p. 256, 257. 

|| See p. 240. 

*[[ See p. 73, relative to Roman antiquities found in this parish ; and also 
see the " Folk-Lore." 



288 

Farm, situated on the east side of the road from Malvern to 
Worcester, and about a mile from the Old Hills. Ridge way 
Ham, or Common Field (now enclosed) lies by the west end of 
the farm, near the messuage and premises called the Daw's Nest, 
where Black Hawthorn Lane joins the above-mentioned road. 
The line of the Portway from Newland, through Powick, was 
most probably across this Common Field, through Ridgeway 
Farm*, thence to Ham Hill, and across Powick Ham, to the 
Teme, which it probably crossed near to the present Wear f , and 
thence led to Upper Wick, in the parish of St. John, and so on 
to Worcester. 

I am sorry that I can offer little or nothing in elucidation of 
the peculiar name " Black Hawthorn Lane." I am informed 
that there formerly was, at the entrance of this lane, a large haw- 
thorn tree of the common kind, which was destroyed about twenty 
years ago through the continual placing of the stones for repair- 
ing the road against its trunk, and that it has since been replaced 
by a younger tree. There is a coppice near Dorking, in Surrey 
called " Black-hawes," where Aubrey says there was a castle \. 

In the parish of ST. JOHN, in Bedwardine§, there is Ridge- 
way Meadow, which lies in Upper Wick, by the Wear, on the Teme, 
a little above Powick Bridge ; and there is no doubt that this was 
part of the line of road in question, and that it went on through 
Upper Wick, along the Port Street, on the boundaries of Lawern ||, 
to Worcester. It may be here remarked that a portion of the 
Roman antiquities previously mentioned, were discovered on the 
west side of Powick village, exactly opposite Ridgeway Meadow IT. 

Dr. Nash, in his " History of Worcestershire," speaks of 
an ancient road in Over Arley, in Staffordshire, on the 

* There is an ancient branch road from Eidgeway Farm to the Old Hills, 
running from thence to Pixam Ferry on the Severn, nearly opposite to Kemp- 
sey village, where ancient relics have been found, as stated in pp. 54 to 60. 

+ " Waer," Saxon. 

J See " Archaeologia," Vol. xi., pp. 102, 107. 

§ See p. 261, as to various names of places in this parish. 

|| See p. 262. 

If See p. 73. 



289 

border of this county, called the Portway, and states that it pro- 
bably led from Worcester, through Over Arley, to Shrewsbury. 
It is observable here, that Portstrset, mentioned in the Anglo- 
Saxon boundaries of Salwarp*, "Portway Plat," in Croces, in 
Sychampton, in Ombersley, and " Portway Piece," in Wolverley, 
also lie in the direct line from Worcester to Over Arley ; and a 
considerable quantity of Eoman relics was found at Knight's 
Grove, in Ombersley, as before stated. Tins part of the Portway 
was probably a deviation road, running parallel with the western 
side of that part of the Western Trackway, which went from 
Worcester, through Droitwich, to Over Arley, &c, as hereafter 
described. The term Port, or Military way, occurs in other parts 
in the county ; but it is not improbable that the one in question 
was, from its length and importance, emphatically called by the 
Romans, " The Portway." It appears to have run along the 
eastern bank of the Severn, between Worcester and Over Arley, 
where forts of Ostorius were most probably placed. 

As the name Ridgeway occurs so frequently in that part of this 
Portway which lies between Frome Hill, Cos. Hereford and Wor- 
cester, it seems very probable that this part of it was a branch of 
the Rycknield Street, or Ridgeway, passing from Wall Hills 
Camp, near Ledbury, to Frome Hill, and thence to Worcester ; 
and that the Romans- adopted it, from Frome Hill to Worcester, 
as part of the main Portway. 

* See " Codex Dip.," Vol. vi., p. 218. 



290 



Iter |f. 



WESTERN TRACKWAY, 

FROM 

TEWKESBURY, THROUGH UPTON AND WORCESTER, 
TO THE TRENCH LANE, DROITWICH, AND SAL- 
WARP; THENCE TO HADLEY HEATH CAMP, IN 
OMBERSLEY; AND THROUGH WASSAL HILL 
CAMP, IN THE PARISH OF KIDDERMINSTER, 
TO OVER ARLEY, &c* 

This line of road forms a part of what is called the Western 
Trackway, which is said to have gone from Isca Damnoniorum, 
or Uxella f (Exeter), Taunton, Bridgewater, Bristol \, Glevum 
(Gloucester), Branogenium or Bravinium§ (Worcester), Salinae 
(Droitwich), and Kidderminster ||, in Worcestershire ; Claverley, 
in Shropshire ; Weston-under-Lizard, Etocetum (Wall), High 
Offley, Mediolanum (Chesterton), and Betley, in Staffordshire ; 
Condate (Congleton or Kinderton), Middlewich, and Northwich, 
in Cheshire ; Warrington, Mancunium (Manchester), Preston, 
Coccium (Blackrode 11), and Lancaster, to Luguballium (Carlisle), 
&c. In Mr. Hatcher's edition of " Richard of Cirencester," 

* See glimpses of this road in the account of Worcester, p. 23 ; Upton, 61 ; 
Ombersley, 108 ; Salwarp, 109, 110 ; Perry Wood, 222, 223 ; Elbury Hill, 224. 

+ Some think that Uxella lay near Bridgewater, or at Barton-on-the-Foss ; 
others, that Isca and Uxella were the same. 

\ Some say this road went from Bridgewater through Ad-Aquas (probably 
WellsJ, Aquae Solis (Bath), and Corinium (Cirencester), to Gloucester. If 
so, the road through Bristol was probably a Boman deviation or short line. 

§ See p. 1. 

|| According to some authorities, this road ran from Droitwich, through 
Birmingham, to Wall. 

% Stukeley says Burton, by Lancaster. 



291 

this road is considered to be British, since it connects many of 
the British towns. It appears to be noticed by Salmon, who 
asserts that a Roman road went from Worcester, crossing 
Shropshire*. 

A description of the southern part of this road, from Gloucester 
to Tewkesbury, will be found in the account of the Rycknield 
Street. 

The following describes that part of it from Tewkesbury to 
Over Arley : — 

In TWYNING, in Gloucestershire, there are places called 
Broadway, Little Broadway, Puckmoor Headland, Puckrup, 
Sharrow, Coneygare, and Showburrow Common f. Roman coins 
have been found in a small camp in this parish. 

The parish of RIPPLE (or Rippel J) contains the site of Roman 
pottery works, and a paved vicinal road, described in pp. 62 
to 68. 

In HILL CROMB, adjoining Ripple, is Hooshill Farm. This 
place was anciently called Heleyombe and Hull Cromb. It is 
written Hilcrumbe in " Domesday Book." 

In EARL'S CROOMB, or Cromb Simon, is a place called 
" Part of Horrell Orchard." The name is written " Crumb " in 
" Domesday Book." 

In CROOMB DABITOT, or Cromb Osbern, is Hell Ford. 
It is spelled " Crumbe " in " Domesday Book§." 

In SEVERN STOKE, anciently called Stocke, there are 
Wainridge's Piece, Part of Horrell Orchard, and the Burrage. 
A Roman coin of Magnentius, now in the Worcestershire 
Museum, was, a few years ago, dug up in this parish |J. 

* See the " Beauties of England and Wales," Vol. xv., Part u\, p. 6. 
+ See p. 64, containing an account of Towbury Hill Camp. 

I " Codex Dip.," Nos. 17, 538. 

§ In Heming's " Cartulary," Vol. ii., p. 348, Aberold, Winterbourne, 
Wipley, and Eagle's Lawn, are mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of 
Crombe. 

II See pp. 65, 66, 67, concerning a paved trackway from the Mythe Tute, 
near Tewkesbury, through Ripple, to Severn Stoke Hill, and probably to Wor- 
cester. This trackway appears to have been a mere vicinal road. 



292 

In PIRTON, formerly spelled Pereton, there is a place named 
Perry Wood. 

In the parish of KEMPSEY, Kemsey, or Kemesey, are Danes 
Close, Quintins, The Noond, Hoberdy Hill*, Old Hills, Green 
Street Meadow, Green Street, Bow's Piece (adjoining Green 
Street), and Bootridge's. In Nash's " History," Vol. ii., p. 23, 
it is stated that a deed, dated 1336, notices " The Portweye, at 
Bromhall, in the manor of Kempsey." In " Domesday Book " 
it is written " Chemesegef." 

In NORTON juxta Kemsey, there are Crokenhill, Great 
Howbourne or Holborn Field, Little Holborn Field, Bury 
Field Hill, and Bury Field Meadow. It contains the hamlet of 
Hatfield, or Hedtfeld. 

In WHITTINGTON a hamlet in the Parish of St. Peter, are 
places called Witch Meadow, Norcroft, Hares Close, Wordings, 
Holburn Field, Cruckbarrow Hill, and Little CruckbarrowJ. 
Whittington was formerly called Hwitingtun §, Widingtun, 
Witington, Witinton, and Witintun. It is supposed to have been 
one of the Anglo-Saxon marks ||. It is, in "Domesday Book," 
spelled " Widintun." Heming's " Cartulary," p. 359, mentions 
Caldwell and Radley, on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of this 
hamlet IF. 

In SPETCHLEY, Spechesley, Spechley, Spseckley, Spsecleah- 
tun or Speclea**, are Round Hill and Pitchen Hill. The name is 
written " Speclea " in " Domesday Book." In Heming's 
" Cartulary," p. 358, the following places are mentioned as 
Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Cudley, or Cutley, namely, Cugganff 
Hill, W T ittlesley, Kyneldworth, Swineshead, Sunderland, Omber- 

* Hoberdy is one of the provincial names for the ignis-fatuus. See 
" Folk-Lore." 

t See pp. 54 to 60, concerning the Roman camp, cists, and other relics, 
found at Kempsey. 

J See p. 21G, &c, relative to Cruckbarrow Hill. 

§ See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 201, 670. 

|| See p. 229. 

% Vide also Nash, Vol. ii., App., p. 55. 

** See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 209, 209 App., Vol. hi., 210, 542. 

It As to the etymology of this name, see p. 219. 



land*, and The Three Meres f. Cudley Manor is in the parish 
of St. Martin, and Cudley Farm and Swineshead Farm in 
Warndon. This place was called Cudeley in Edward the Con- 
fessor's reign. It is spelled " Cudelei " in " Domesday Book." 
.With respect to the name Swineshead, Swinesherd, or Swineherd, 
there is, in the Cottonian MS., Claudius C. viii., a representation 
of Anglo-Saxon swineherds, with a dog and horn, and armed with 
spears, driving their swine into the forest to feed upon acorns, 
which one of the herdsmen is shaking from the trees with his 
hand. Also see " Art Journal " thereon, No. 156, June 1851, 
p. 170. 

The Cuggan Hyll of the Saxon boundaries seems to have been 
what is now designated the Round Hill, in Spetchley, which abuts 
against the eastern side of Cudley ; and it appears probable that 
most of the hills which now only go by the modern name of 
" Round Hill," were distinguished by the prefix of " Crug," 
" Toot}," &c, in days of yore. The views from the hill in 
question are fine, and rather extensive. 

In the parish of ST. MARTIN are Lipperd (otherwise 
Lypeard, or Lappewrthe, or Lappawurthin), Pirie or Perry Wood§, 
Pirie Court, King's Hill, and Portfields Road. Lipperd and Pirian 
are mentioned in Oswald's Charter, dated 969. (See " Codex 
Dip.," No. 559.) Pirian is also noticed in " Domesday Book." 

In the parish of ST. PETER are Burnt Orchard, Yeld 
Meadow, Camp Ground ||, Spa Field, and Swinesherd. This 
parish includes Whittington, Batenhallf (Battenhall), Timber- 
dine, and other places. 

In CLAINES parish are Port Fields Farm, Port Fields Road, 
Harbour Hill, Astwood, Elbury Hill, Street Hill Tillage on 
Rainbow Hill ridge abutting against Merriman's Hill range ; 

* See "Ambrosias Petrae," Chap, ii., as to this name. 

+ See Nash, Vol. ii., App., p. 55. 

J See pp. 216, 217, and p. 233, &c., as to these names. 

§ See p. 222. 

|| This elevation was probably one of the outposts of the battle of Worcester, 
in 1651. (See pp. 222, 223.) It might, however, have been a more ancient 
camp, as it is in the direct line between Cruckbarrow and Castle Hills. 

1[ See " Codex Dip.," No. 559. 



294 

Rad Meadow, Colwell Piece, and In Colwell Piece, in Astwood ; 
Wall Meadow and Wall Ground, in Tollardine ; In Bow Stone 
Field, at Femall Heath ; Camp Close, near Bevere Green ; 
Copsons ; Tutnall, Tetnall, or Tootenhill ; Tetnall Close, Dane's 
Close, Barrow Cop Field, Barrow Cop Orchard, Barrow Cop, alias 
Little Barrow Cop ; Puckpit Farm, alias Tapenhall, or Tapenhale ; 
and the Fort, in Windmill Field, near to Little Lowesmoor and 
Great Lowesmoor". For further particulars relative to Claines, 
see the account of Worcester, Perdeswell, Bevere Island, Elbury 
Hill, Astwood, and Tutnall. 

BREDICOT f.— -The name is spelled " Bradecote " in " Domes- 
day Book ;" and, according to Dr. Nash, it means the cot of Brade. 
In Heming's " Cartulary," p. 357, mention is made of the Salt- 
road,Wolfpit, Wynn Meadow, and Callew or Callow Hill j, on the 
Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Bredicot§. 

TIBBERTON was formerly spelled Tibritton, Tyberton, Tybur- 
ton, Tidbrichtingtone, Tebertone, or Titbrictune||. In " Domesday 
Book " it is written " Tyberton." There is a place called Raven's 
Hill, in this parish, near to Bredicot and Crowle. The Danish 
origin of this name is stated in the account of Alfrick, p. 194, &c. 

CROWLE was spelled Crogleah and Crohlea in the Anglo-Saxon 
times If, and Crohlea in " Domesday Book." It is said, by Dr. 
Nash, to mean " The Dirty Field **." — See p. 94 as to supposed 
Danish relics found there. 

IN WARNDON, or Warmedon, there are farms called Trots 
Troshill, or Tootshill, Cudleyff, and Swinesherd or Swineherd ; 

* See p. 36. 

+ See pp. 95, 96, 97, as to Roman relics found there. 

J Also see Nash thereon, Vol. ii., App., p. 53. 

§ See " Codex Dip.," 507, 507 App., Vol. hi., and 683, as to Calawan hyl 
(Calwan hyll). 

|| See " Codex Dip.," No. 150, 150 App., Vol. iii., and 923, as to Tim- 
bingctun and Timhrintun. 

IT See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 237, 242, 242 App., Vol. iii. 

** But query Crow Field. 

tt It was called Cuclley in King Edgar's time (see Thomas's " Survey, &c. 
of Worcester Cathedral," App. 40) ; and Cudelei in " Domesday Book." 
Nash (Vol. ii., p. 439) says Cudley means the field of Codi. 



295 

also a field called Tincroft, in Lower Smite Farm. The name is 
written Wearman-den and Werdun, in Anglo-Saxon Charters *, 
and Wermedum, in " Domesday Book." In Heming's " Car- 
tulary," p. 355, mention is made of Oldbury and Babels-hill on 
the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Smite f, which is partly in Warn- 
don, and partly in Hindlip. 

With respect to Smite, Nash says, " Mr. Wm. Fellows, a 
learned antiquary and vicar of Tibberton, a.d. 1708, supposes it 
was called Smite J, from an engagement near this place between 
the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. — MS. Fellows §." 

In HINDLIP, or Inlip, and Alcrinton (now Alfreton), there 
are Rad Meadow, Wolf's Meadow, Coverley Field, Oldbury Field, 
Smite Hill, Upper Smite, Lower Smite, Doken Field, and Cold 
Harborough, or Cold Harbour ||. In the Anglo-Saxon times it 
was called HindehlypH; and in " Domesday Book," Hindelep 
and Alcrintun. In Heming's " Cartulary," p. 463, mention is 
made of Herpath, or the military way on the boundaries of this 
parish. The name Hindlip is said to signify the Hind's Leap-*. 
A Roman copper coin was found in the rectory grounds in 1840. 

MARTIN or MERTON HUSSINTREE is spelled in 
" Domesday Book," Husentree. In the year 1832, a Roman 
copper coin of Commodus was found on levelling a bank by the 
roadside, near the inn called the Shoeing Horse. 

In Catshallft and Coneygree in OMBERSLEY, otherwise 
Ambresley, and Ambersley, are Hither Warvil, Further Warvil, 
and Barrow Lane. 

In Croces, in Sychampton, in Ombersley, there is a place 
called Portway Plat. 

* See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 118, 118 App., Vol. iii., and 570. 

+ Ibid., Nos. 618 and 1053 as to Smite. 

+ Smitae in Anglo-Saxon signifies a slow, greasy stream, or pool. 

§ See Nash, Vol. ii., p. 452. 

|| Much has heen said of late relative to the derivation of the names of the 
numerous places called Cold Harbour. — See Hagley, pp. 138 to 142, and 
Malvern, pp. 155, 159, &c. 

f See " Codex Dip.," No. 402, 402 App., Vol. iii. 

** See Nash, Vol. ii., p. 437. 

++ There is Catnell Green in Elmley Lovett. 



296 

In Stewards, in Sychampton, in Ombersley, there is a place 
called Salent Oak. 

In Uphampton, in Ombersley, is a place called Wharwill. 

In Allies, in BOKLEY, in Ombersley, there is a place called 
Underdoms. 

This estate has been called by my family name, " Allies," from 
the time of the earliest Court Kolls of the Manor of Ombersley, 
which commence in the 43rd Edward III., 1368. It was formerly 
of considerable extent, and lay in Brockhampton, Northampton, 
Mayeux, Beriton, Trylmylne, Winhale, Ambersley, and Borley ; 
but the name is now nearly confined to that part which lies in 
Borley. The family removed from Ombersley in the latter part 
of the 1 7th century, and have been owners and occupiers of the 
Upper House Estate, Alfrick, since the former part of the 18th 
century. A branch of the family of Allies, or Alye, lived in the 
parish of Northfield, near Ombersley, as appears by the pedigrees 
in the Herald s Visitations of Gloucester, anno 1623 ; Hereford, 
1683; and London, 1687*. 

The following extracts, from the Index of the Court Rolls of 
the manor, relative to grants which had been made out of the 
estate, are rather curious, as showing the peculiar manners and 
customs of our ancestors, and the great difference in the value of 
property, or rather of money, in mediaeval times to what it is at 
present f:— 

* The coat is azure ; a lion rampant, argent. Crest : — On a wreath of the 
colours, a lion's head cahossed, or., between two wings, sable. The coat of 
the Ally, or Alye family, of Dorset, is different to the above; and the coat 
which belonged to Sir Eichard Aly, of Sapwell, Co. Hertford, as stated hi the 
Harleian MSS., 1140, for Hereford, does not resemble either of the above- 
mentioned. 

+ Also, see p. 245. 



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303 

Ombersley was anciently written Anibresley, Ambresloy, and 
Ombresley; in Anglo-Saxon charters, Ambresleah, Ambreslege, 
and Ambresleia * ; in " Domesday Book" it is spelled Ambreslege |. 

IN ASTLEY there are places called Sitch Meadow, Great and 
Little Sitch Meadow, Round Hill, Round Hill Coppice, Peril 
Cop, Far Rowberry, Coneygreen, Hell Hole, The Yield, The 
Burf, Part of Upper Woolstons |, Deep-den, and Lincomb §, or 
Lincumb. This parish was anciently spelled Estley, Astley, or 
JEstlege. In " Domesday Book" it is written Esley. At Red- 
stone Ferry point, on the western bank of the Severn, where 
Astley joins to Areley Kings, is the site of an ancient hermitage 
excavated in the lofty cliff. This is rendered remarkable, as being 
the place where Layamon, about the time of King John, wrote 
his " Brut," or Chronicle of Britain ||. 

In HARTLEBURY there are places called Hargrove, Har- 
groves, Hargrove Lane, Doles-in-Torton Meadow IT, Egg Lane, 
Puck Hall Field, Far Puck Hall Piece, Dole-*, in Hanging Close ; 
Round Hill, Tyn-fieldes (Tin Fields), Tin Fields Near, Tin Fields 
Far; First, Second, and Third Tin Fields ff, Great Hoos Head, 
and Ell || Meadow. This parish was anciently spelled Huertburie, 
Hertlibury, and Heortlabiri. In " Domesday," it is written 
Huerteberie. It is said the name of this place, in the Saxon 
language, signifies " the hill or place of harts §§." 

* See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 56, 56 App., Vol. iii., 64, 1355 ; also, see " Am- 
brosiae Petrse," Chap. ii. 

+ For account of Roman and other relics, which were found at Hadley Heath, 
in this parish, together with a British celt found at Lineholt Common, vide 
p. 106 to 109 ; also, see account of the Rycknield Street, concerning the site 
of a probable fort of Ostorius, by the Severn, near Ombersley village. 

j Wolstan is a contraction of the Saxon name Wulfstan. 

§ See " Codex Dip.," No. 56 ; also, pp. 112, 113 of this work. 

|| Vide Layamon's " Brat," Introd., pp. 10-19, Ed. Sir F. Madden; also 
Nash's " History," Vol. i, p. 41. 

^[ See p. 113, as to the word Torton. 

** See Alfrick, p. 248. 

tt See p. 127. 

++ See Elbury Hill, p. 223, &c. 

§§ See p. 113, concerning relics found in Hartlebury ; and Chap, iv., as to 



304 

In WARESLEY, in Hartlebury, are Tin Meadow and Round 
Hill. 

In UPPER MITTON, in Hartlebury, are Organ's Hill, Big 
and Little Organ 's Hill, and Round Hill. The name Organ pos- 
sibly may have come either from Organy (wild marjoram) having 
grown on the hills in question, or from orgies (orgia) mad rites 
of Bacchus, frantic revels, having been practised there by the 
Romans or Romanized British. There likewise is Organ's Hill 
between Heightington and Rock. 

In ELMLEY LOVETT are Burn Hill, Wat Pit, Tin Mea- 
dow, Great and Little Puckall, Round Hill, and Catnell Green. 
Elmley Lovett was anciently called Almeleia or Aumeleia. In 
" Domesday" it is written iElmeleia. 

In ARELEY KINGS, or Lower Areley, are Dreacle Hill, 
Devil's Dib*, The Mounins, Vineyards, Hanstones Hill, Han- 
stones Bank, Hanstones Little Hill, Hanstones Field, and 
Hungry Hobourn. It was anciently called Armleg, Harlegh de 
Rege, and Arley Regis. 

In STONE, with the Hamlet of Shenstone, are Curslow Hill, 
Egg Lane Piece, Aggborough Piece, Round Hill, Piper's Close, 
and Hoo. It was anciently written Staines, and in " Domesday 
Book," Stanes. 

In the Hamlet of LOWER MITTON, in the parish of Kid- 
derminster, are Sleeper's Den, Short Winwood Close, The Vine- 
yard, and Dane Piece. 

In RIBBESFORD are Ockeridge Wood and Ridges. The 
name, in the " Codex Dip.," No. 738, is written Ribbedfordf. 
Bewdley, in this parish, is derived from Bellus Locus, or Beau- 
lieu. 

KIDDERMINSTER was anciently written Chiderminster, and 
in " Domesday Book," Chideminstre. Dr. Nash says, " the word 
Kidderminster means a church standing upon the brow of a hill, 

Hargraves, on the limits of the manor, where also are " Lowe Field," " Hagg 
Lane," and " Torton Field." 

* Or Valley. 

\ See p. 146, as to a celt found there, and as to a Roman coin found at 
Tickenhill, in Bewdley. 



305 

and the water running under it. ' Kid' signifying, in the old 
British, the brow of a hill; ' dur,' water; and ' minster,' a 
church. Some have supposed Kidderminster to have been de- 
rived from Cynebert's Minster." In the " Rambler in Worces- 
tershire," published in 1851, pp. 2, 3, the author, after noticing 
several definitions of antiquaries as to the name Kidderminster, 
says, others " facetiously assert that one King Cador resided 
there in the glorious days of the round table, and that Caders 
Minster is thenee derived ; in proof of which, they advance the 
following whimsical, versified tradition : — 
" King Cador saw a pretty maid ; 

King Cador would have kissed her ; 
The damsel slipt aside, and said, — 
' King Cador, you have miss'd her.' 

(" i. e., Cador, or Keder-mister.") 

The above may be taken as a specimen of medieval legends in 
general, which often had reference to names of places*. Laya- 
mon's " Brut" abounds with them. 

The manor of Caldwell, in the parish of Kidderminster, is said, 
by Dr. Nash, to have been " so called, perhaps, from Calida 
Vallis, being very descriptive of its situation ;" but it probably 
means Cold-wellf. 

Mitton, a hamlet -in this parish is, in " Domesday Book," 
called Metune. 

In the borough of Kidderminster are places called the Danes, 
and Round Hill. 

In the parish of the Foreign of Kidderminster, including the 
hamlets of Hurcott and Comberton, there are places called 
Ellerne Field, or Ellarne Field, Tipper's Oak, Cop Hill, Battle 
Field, Round Hill, Jack's Stile, Upper Street Leasow, Lower 
Street Leasow, Aggborough, and Hoar Stone \. 

South of Wribbenhall, near Bewdley, there is a place called 
the Devil's Spadeful (in Isaac Taylor's map and the Ordnance 
Map, the Devil's Spittleful). It is a remarkable pinnacle of 
sandstone rock, situate in Blacks tone Farm, in the Foreign of 

* See Oddingley thereon. 

t See pp. 158, 159. 

% See pp. 144, 145, as to Wassal Hill Camp, or Warshill Camp, in this 

parish. 

X 



306 

Kidderminster, and standing about a mile from Blackstone Cave, 
or Hermitage, not far from Wassal Camp and the Hoar Stone. 
The following curious legend is told of the " Devils Spade- 
ful :" — As a cobbler was returning home at night with a pair 
of shoes to mend, he was met by a certain old gentleman carry- 
ing a spadeful, who enquired of the cobbler how far it was 
to Bewdley, as, on account of its great godliness, he wanted 
to drown it, by throwing the spadeful into the Severn : to 
which the cobbler replied that it was so far off that he 
had worn out the pair of shoes he then exhibited in walking 
from it ; whereupon the old gentleman threw the spadefull 
down at the spot in question, and declared he would not carry 
it any further. With respect to the size of this spadeful, a gen- 
tleman of Bewdley, James Fryer, Esq., favoured me with the 
following particulars : — " The circumference of this rock at the 
base is about 291 yards. It is naked at the summit, and has a 
small cavern at the south west end, which has been inhabited. 
The length at the summit is 67 yards. Its average width is three 
yards ; and its height about 35 or 40 feet. The rock stands in 
sulated in a basin of sandy soil, the contents of which may be 
about a square mile. It has been planted on the sides with 
beech, Scotch fir, and other trees that grow well." 

About four or five miles north of the above-mentioned place, 
there is a spot called the Giant's Grave. 

Wribbenhall, above referred to, is a hamlet in the parish of 
Kidderminster, and situated on the left bank of the Severn, im- 
mediately opposite Bewdley. 

In the " Archseologia," Vol. xxxi.*, there is the following curious 
account of a grant of land in this hamlet : — 

" Remarkable Charter of the Twelfth Century from the Muniments 
of the Lechmere Family. 
" 18th April, 1844, Evelyn Philip Shirley, Esq., M.P. for the 
county of Monaghan, exhibited a charter of the twelfth century, 
from the muniments of the Lechmere family. It is a confirma- 
tion from Balph de Mortuo Mari of a grant of land in Wribben- 
hall, Co. Worcester, made by Turstinus to the monks of a 

* Appendix, p. 475. 



307 

monastery not specified. The peculiarities of this charter consist, 
first, in its being signed with a cross, by each of the persons 
who made and confirmed this grant — a practice of very rare 
occurrence ; and, secondly, in the seal being suspended by a thin 
label, not as usual, from the foot of the charter, but from the 
middle of it. It is believed that this is the only instance hitherto 
known of such a singular mode of attaching the seal being prac- 
tised in England ; although something similar exists in the col- 
lection of charters in the Hotel de Soubise, at Paris." 

With respect to the above-mentioned mode of signature it must 
be remarked that few persons signed Anglo-Saxon charters and 
grants without using either the tauma or the cross*. The hammer 
of Thunor (Thorr) was the true heathen symbol of all contracts!, 
and it is well known to have been represented by the cross J. 

In WOLVERLEY § there are Portway Piece, Big Oldbrough, 
Round Hill, S oleum, Street Meadow, Street Leasow, Axborough 
Lane, and Great and Little Axborough. The name Wolverley 
was anciently spelled Wulfirdingly, Wulwardinglea, Ulwar- 
delei, Wlwardeley, Wlverslawe, and Wlfreslawe. In " Domes- 
day Book" it is written Ulwardelei, and in Anglo-Saxon charters, 
UulfTerdinleah, Uulfordilea, and Wulfweardiglea||. 

In OVER ARLEY, or Upper Arley, in Staffordshire, there are 
ColdRidge Wood, Lower Coldridge, Kitlands, Kitlands Coppice, 
Wall Croft, The Yeals, Wall's Meadow, Upper Burgage, Lower 
Burgage, Castle Field, Tedge Hole, Hennage, the Innage, The 
Walls, Little Yeals, Big Yeals, and Hawk-batchH. Over Arley 

* Seep. 202. 

t See " Codex Dip.," Vol. i., Int., pp. 94. 100. 

I In Kemble's " Saxon's in England," Vol. i., p. 347, it is stated that this 
peculiar weapon of Thor " seems to denote the violent crushing thunder-bolt, 
and the Norse myth represents it as continually used against the giants or 
elemental gods of the primal world." 

§ A branch of the road in question is supposed to have run from Wolverley 
to Kenvaur Edge, &c. 

|| See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 291, 292, App., Vol. iii., and 766. The same 
work sets forth other names of places in Worcestershire, having the prefix 
" Wolf," as Wulfandun, No. 59 App., Vol. iii., &c. 

% See p. 145, as to the Portway, Roman Camp, Castle Field, and other relics 
in this parish. 



308 

was anciently written " Ernlege. Ernleah*," Amley and Arlegh. 
With respect to the etymology of the suffix " ley," see the 
account of Abberley Hill ; the prefix " Ar" is British, and sig- 
nifies the same with super in Latin f. 

EASTERN SIDE OF THE COUNTY.— ANCIENT 
ROADS AND CAMPS, &c. 

The lines of the ancient roads and camps, on the eastern side 
of the county, from Middle Hill near Broadway to Bidford, will 
appear in the account of the Lower Salt-way : and from Bidford 
to Edgbaston, near Birmingham, &c , in the account of the Ryck 
nield Street. 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 705. 

+ See Dugdale's "Warwickshire," Vol. i., p. 103. Ed. Thorn. 






309 



iitx mt 



SALT-WAYS. 

THE UPPER SALT-WAY, 

FROM 

DROITWICH TO EDGBASTON, NEAR BIRMINGHAM. 

The Upper Salt-way, although not noticed in the Ordnance 
Map of Worcestershire, is set down in the Rev. Thomas Leman's 
Map of Ancient British Trackways*, as proceeding north-eastward 
from Droitwich, through Worcestershire, and along the northern 
side of Leicestershire to Lincolnshire. Its line from Droitwich 
to Birmingham, &c, probably was as follows : — 

From Droitwich, (anciently called Wic and Wich), by Doder- 
hill, and near the line of the Salwarp or Saiowarpe River to Upton 
Warren, by Stoke Prior, through Bromsgrove, and by or over the 
east side of the Lickey, and through Shepley, where it probably 
fell in with the most primitive line of the Rycknield Street, as 
hereafter stated f. Thence, after their juncture, the two roads 
passed by Twatling Farm, Tin Fields, Fire or Firy Hill, and Barn 
or Barnt Green, and through Coston Hacket, Northfield, and 
Witchall, to Edgbaston, where they separated as hereafter stated. 
The road then continued by Camp Hill, and on the east side of 
Birmingham, by Ashted to Salteley, near Duddeston, &c. ; so 
on to Stretton, on the border of Warwickshire \, as stated in the 

* See Brewer's " Beauties of England and Wales," Int., p. 13, thirteenth 
edition, 1818. 

+ See the conclusion of this article, and also the account of the Rycknield 
Street. I do not pretend to say which is the oldest, the Salt- way, or the Ryck- 
nield Street, but should think the latter. 

| That is Stretton -en-lc -Fields, in Derbyshire. 



310 

" Beauties of England and Wales," Vol. i., pp. 61, 62 ; and in 
" Eichard of Cirencester," p. 116. 

DKOITWICH. — Much has been said in the former part of 
this work as to this place having been the Salinae of the Romans ; 
and that the Salt- ways thereto, which are generally considered to be 
British, strongly tend to prove that the salt springs at Droitwich 
were used by the Britons. With respect to the Anglo-Saxon 
times, it appears that, in 716, iEthelbald of Mercia granted certain 
saltworks near the river Salwerpe at Lootwic*, in exchange, 
however, for others to the north of the river f. 

In the same year he granted a hide of land in Saltwic (Saltwych), 
uuico {yico) emptorio sails, to Evesham J. 

In 888, iEthelred, Duke of Mercia, held a gemot at Saltwic, to 
consult upon affairs both ecclesiastical and secular. The Witan 
assembled from far and near§. 

Saltwic was frequently in Anglo-Saxon times called Wich or 
Wiche only, and the prefix " Droit" was added in later times. It 
is observable here, that the Anglo-Saxon kings possessed a right 
to levy certain dues at the salt-pans, or the pit's mouth, upon the 
waggons as they stood, and upon the load being placed in them : 
these dues were respectively called the wsenscilling and seam- 
pending, — literally, wain-shilling and load-penny. — See the 
Charter of iEthelred, Duke of Mercia, in the " Codex Dip.," 
No. 1075, and the account of Alfrick in this work||. Mr. Kemble, 
in his " Saxons in England," Vol. ii., pp. 71, 72, in speaking of 
these dues, says : — " The peculiar qualities of salt, which make 
it a necessary of life to man, have always given a special character 
to the springs and soils which contain it. The pagan Germans 
considered the salt springs holy, and waged wars of extermination 

* And Coolbeorg. 

i See " Codex Dip.," No. 67 ; andKeinble's " Saxons in England," Vol. ii , 
p. 70. 

J " Codex Dip.," No. 68. 

§ Ibid., Nos. '327, 1068, 1075 ; and Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. 
ii., p. 252. Also -see Archbishop Wulfstan's Charter, No. 1313, dated 1017, 
relative to Sealtwic. 

j] See p. 200. 



311 

for their possession * ; and it is not improbable that they may 
generally have been the exclusive property of the priesthood. 
If so, we can readily understand how, upon the introduction 
of Christianity, they would naturally pass into the hands of 
the king ; and this seems to throw light upon the origin of this 
royalty, which Eichhorn himself looks upon as difficult of explana- 
tion f. Many of the royal rights were unquestionably inherited 
from the pagan priesthood];." 

SALWARP is mostly spelled Saleweorpe or Salwarpe in the 
Anglo-Saxon charters §, and Salewarpe in " Domesday Book." 
There were in the Anglo-Saxon times, Coil-hill, Coil-ford, Omber- 
setene, and Portstraet, on the boundaries of this parish ||. 

The following names of places occur in the line in question 
from Droitwich to Birmingham : — 

In DODERHLLL there are,— Hanbury Meadow, The Ridge- 
way Field, Upper Street, Upper Street Sling, Thumb's Close, 
Cob's Close, Cob's Croft, Cob's Orchard, Egg Hills, Oven's Hill, 
Dane's Meadow, Robin Hood Piece, Round Hill, Astwood or 
Carpel Meadow, Piper's Hill, and ImpneylT. 

There is a manor called Wichbold in Doderhill. This name, 
Dr. Nash-* says, means " The Hall of the Wicciansff." It is 
called Wicelbold in " Domesday Book." 

In UPTON WARREN there are places called Woodbury, 
Warraton Meadow, Wall Dole, Oldbury, Twinton]:{, Great, Little, 
and near Asthills, Sitch Close, Hell Patch, Kit Meadow, and 
Warridge. In " Domesday Book" this place is spelled Uptune. 
Cokesey in this parish is spelled Cockesie. 

* Tacitus, Ann. xiii., 57. 

+ Deut. Staatsr., ii., 426, § 297. 

I Also see the general observations relative to the names, Wick, Wich, 
andWiccia, Chap. I. 

§ Vide " Codex Dip.," No. 34, 56, 67, 117, &c. 

|| See Heming's " Cartulary," p. 353 ; Nash, Vol. ii., App,, p. 50 ; and 
" Codex Dip.," Nos.570, 1366; also ante, pp. 109, 110, 111. 

^[ See Bum's " Ecclesiastical Law," Vol. iii., pp. 446, 447. 

** Vol. ii., p. 347. 

++ But query this. 

l\ Probably meaning Quinton. 



312 

In DOVERDALE*, near Upton Warren, there are places 
called Hell Hole Meadow, and Round Hill. Doverdale was 
anciently called Lunuredale and Doudale. " Domesday Book" 
has it Lunuredele. 

In STOKE PRIOR there are places called Hell-end Meadow, 
Harbour's Hill Piece, Callow Lane, The Styche, Robin's 
Meadow, Hobden. In Latin records it is written Stoka, or 
Stocha. In " Domesday," Stoche. Some ancient bracelets have 
been found here, and also primitive ovens f. 

Dr. Nash, in describing the boundaries of Stoke Prior Manor, 
speaks of Puck Lane and Obden Brook J. 

In BROMSGROVE PARISH there are Old Hill, Low's 
Hill, The Lowes, Vigo Piece, Honier Boon, Oven Piece, Wall 
Hill, Wall Hill Close, Dicel Dole, Dib Dale, Beacon Wood, 
Round Hill, Beach Dole, Firy Hill, Warding, Twatling Wood, 
In Beacon's Field, Beacons, Highway Hill, Upper, Middle, and 
Lower Gannow, The Streets, Dole Meadow, Oldbury, Rattle- 
stone, Big and Little Mole Horn, Folly Meadow, Dole in Broad 
Meadow, Doles, Fockbury Meadow, Bache Green, Burcot, Ham- 
bery Piece, Big Ambery, Tin Meadows §, Yarnell Lane, Mottk's 
Wood, The King's Chair, Wilkin Close, Tickeridge Piece, 
Bungay Lane Homestead, Holbourne, Bewell Head, Oven 
Wood, Pug's Hole Allotment ||, Hambury's Piece and Meadow, 
The Lear, Upper and Lower Callow's Field, Devil's Den, Cobnail, 
Jack's Croft, Burcott Yeeld, Shepley Yeeld, Woodcoat Yield, and 
Fatch Leasow, in Burcott. 

At a place called Pigeon- House Hill, by Longbridge, on the 
north side of Bromsgrove Lickey, several Roman coins were 
found as stated in the account of DroitwicML In " Domesday 
Book" this parish is called Bremesgrave **, where a place called 

* See p. 270, relative to the derivation of this name. 
+ Vide pp. Ill, 112. 
+ See Vol. ii., p. 380. 
§ Called Pin Fields in the Ordnance Map. 
|| Meaning Puck's Hole. — See " Folk-Lore." 
H See p. 102. 

** See pp. 115, 122 ; also, Chap. IV., and Shepley Road, Rycknield Street, 
Iter XIX. 



313 

Totheliel, now called Tonthall Cross-, is likewise noticed. In 
Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. ii., Appendix C, p. 551, 
in the account of Anglo-Saxon towns, there is the following : — 
" Bremesbyrig. — At this place Ethelflsed built a burn. ' Saxon 
Chron.,' 910. Florence says, ' urbem,' an. 911, perhaps Broms- 
grove, in Worcestershire, the Et Bremesgrafum of the ' Codex 
Diplomaticus.' " 

In COSTON, or Cofton Hackett, there are Creamen Meadow, 
The Sprights, and " Part of Warstone." This place was anciently 
called Codestun and Coftunf. In " Domesday Book" it is written 
Costone. In Chap. IV. on Hoar-Stones, " Whorstone Field" 
is said to be partly in King's Norton and partly in Crofton 
Hacket : it also notices " Hoar Apple Tree" in that part. King 
OfFa, in the year 780, gave to the church of Worcester five 
manses at Wreodenhale, which, in the year 849, were granted by 
Alhhun, Bishop of Worcester, to King Berhtwulf J. 

In FRANKLEY there are Came's Meadow, Upper Hoblets, 
Banky Hoblets, Warstone Farm, Great and Little Bound Hill, 
Hobacre, Ravens Hays Wood, and Jack Leasow T . This parish 
was formerly spelled Fraunkeleigh, Franchelie, and Frankel ; and 
in " Domesday Book" it is written Franchelei, which Dr. Nash 
says " signifies a free or privileged place, this name being pro- 
bably given to it from the lands being granted by the first Saxon 
lord, to the tenants, without the reservation of any base services." 
In support of this conjecture, it may be remarked that the 
" Domesday" survey of this manor records nine bordarii, but not 
one villanus. 

In NORTHFIELD, otherwise Nordfield§, there are War- 
stone, Warstone Field ||, Ellbank Piece, Bumbury Piece, Big Bum- 
bury Piece, Tin Meadow, Cob's Field, Long Noke, Robin's Field, 
Big Robin's Field, Robin's Hays, Witches Rough, Quinton Oak, 
Port Fields, Castle Hill, Kitwell, Harbourne Meadow, Hob Acre, 

* See Nash, Vol. i., p. 150. 

+ See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 596, 660, 138, 262, 351. 

+ Ibid., Nos. 138, 262. 

§ See " Domesday Book." 

I! See Chap. IV. 



314 

First and Far Hobridge, Hob Bedding, Hob's Croft, Jack Piece, 
Middle and Far Jack Piece, Round Hill, and Weoley Castle. 

In BIRMINGHAM there are Wor-ston, Warstone Lane*, and 
Hoar Quebb, in the Foreign of Birmingham f. It is written Ber- 
mengeham in " Domesday Book." 

In Nash's " History," Vol. ii., App., p. 107, there is a quota- 
tion from Bishop Lyttelton, relative to this line of road, which 
Higden erroneously calls the Ykenild Street [Rycknield Street] 
in the whole of the line. The Bishop, however, does not appear 
to have seen that the part of the road from Droitwich to Broms- 
grove Lickey meant a part of the Upper Salt-way, which seems 
to have run into the elder branch of the Rycknield Street 
at Shepley Heath or Twatling Farm, near Bromsgrove Lickey, 
and thence proceeded as one road to Edgbaston, where the two 
branched off as previously stated. The following is the quota- 
tion : — 

" If any credit may be given to an old writer, R. Higden, cited 
in Gale's ' Essay on the Roman Roads' J, the Ykenild Street 
passed through Worcester from Maridunum [Caermarthen], in 
South Wales, to Droitwich, Edgbaston, Wall near Litchfield, 
Little Chester, near Derby, and so on to Tinmouth, in Northum- 
berland ; but, though I cannot subscribe to this, as the Ykenild 
undoubtedly enters this county at Beoley, in its course from 
Alcester, in Warwickshire, and passes by Bordesley Park, in Alve- 
church, and so goes to Edgbaston and Wall ; yet, I have myself 
often observed a high raised road on the Lickey, pointing di- 
rectly to Bromsgrove, from whence, I make no doubt, it proceeded 
to Wich, the supposed Salinse of Ravennas, and thence to 
Worcester." 

THE LOWER SALT-WAY, AND THE LOWER 
DEVIATION SALT- WAY. 

There appears to be two branches of the Lower Salt- way from 
Droitwich to Northleach, in Gloucestershire; the one through 

* See Chap. IV. t Ibid. 

\ Leland's " I tin.," Vol. vi., p. 109. 



315 

Alcester and over Broadway Hill and Middle Hill, to Northleach, 
and the other by Elmley Castle, Ashton Underhill, Sudeley 
Castle, and Hawling, to Northleach, where they probably united, 
and ran on to Coin St. Aldwins, and thence to Hampshire, as 
is hereafter stated. For convenience of description, I shall call 
the former of these two lines The Lower Salt-way, and the latter 
the Lower Deviation Salt-way. 



310 



ite mi 



THE LOWER SALT-WAT, 

FROM 

DR01TWICH TO BROADWAY HILL, NORTHLEACH, &c. 

This Salt-way is set down in the Rev. Thomas Leman's Map 
of Ancieat British Trackways as proceeding from Droitwich, 
through Alcester, to Cirencester, &c. It appears to have gone 
eastward from Droitwich (Salinse), through Hadsor (where it bears 
the name of the Salt-way in the Ordnance Map), thence to Mere 
(or Meer) Green and Bradley Green ; thence through Feckenham 
and Inkberrow, by Muzzy Hill, north of Hoobery Green, Worces- 
teshire (where it again is called the Salt-way in the Ordnance 
Map) ; thence across the Ridge-way * to Hanging Well, Bunker's 
Hill Barn, and Alcester Heath, Warwickshire, to the Ryckniekl 
Street f, north of Alcester; thence along that street to Bidford ; 
thence along the line of the Buckle Street from Bidford, through 
Ullington, in the parish of Pebworth ; thence between the Honey- 
bournes, through Weston Subedge, over Willersey Hill ; thence 
over the Cotswolds at Middle Hill, where it resumes the name of 
the Salt-way. 

It is stated in the " Salopia Antiqua," that a way called Buckle 
Street, or Boggilde Street J, passes between Church Honeyboume, 
in Worcestershire, and Cow Honeybourne, in Gloucestershire, 
and through Western Subedge in the latter county ; and that it 
continued southward, under the name of the Salt- way, over the 

* This Ridgeway probably was the earliest line of the Rycknield Street, 
f There described as the Haydon-way in the Ordnance Map. 
I Called " Bnggilde Straet" and " Bucgan Street." — see the Charter of Kerned 
and Offa, dated a. d. 709, and in " Codex Dip.," Nos. 61,. 289, 534, 1068. 



317 

Cotswolds, along the ridge by the Tower on Broadway Hill*, in 
Gloucestershire, to Middle Hill, in Worcestershire!, from whence 
it most probably went in nearly a straight line southward through 
Smallthorn and Condicote J, to the Foss-way, either at Bourton- 
on-the- Water, or Stow-on-the-Wold, all in Gloucestershire ; and 
afterwards to Cirencester, &c.§ ; or rather, perhaps, it was joined 
by the Lower Deviation Salt-way at Northleach, and then they 
went as one road to Coin St. Aldwins, &c, as hereafter stated. 
From Church Honeybourne (or rather from Ullington) to Alces- 
ter, it is called the Icknield Street in the Ordnance Map ; but 
this appears to have been a mistake in that part, from Honey- 
bourne or Ullington, to Bidford, unless the Kycknield Street did 
run from South Littleton to Ullington, and then to Bidford, 
instead of going through Middle Littleton, North Littleton, Cleeve 
Prior, and Marlciff, to Bidford ||. In Mr. May's " History of 
Evesham," second edition, p. 364, it is stated that the course of 
the Buckle Street " is still clearly seen from Bidford to Honeybourne 
Bridge, through Westonfield, across the new Camden Road, by 
Saintbury, to the top of Willersey Hill, whence, crossing the 
London road, east of the Fish, on Broadway Hill, it appears to 
have joined the Foss-way at, or near Stow." 

In the middle of Camp Field, in Seven Wells Farm, Wor- 
cestershireH, situate on the south-east of Middle Hill **, there are 
some slight vestiges of a small oblong square camp (lately 
pointed out to me by Sir Thomas Phillipps). A similar one is 
visible on the north side, in the adjoining field. The traces of 

* I rather tliink there must have heen an ancient camp on this commanding- 
spot, the site of which has been destroyed by a land-slip, which, to all appear- 
ance, took place there several centuries back. 

+ See Chap. IV., concerning Hoar Stones, in Cutsdean, which parish lies 
near the line in cpiestion, between Middle Hill and Small-thorn. 

I Or it might have gone by a more circuitous route, through Cutsdean, 
Temple Guiting, Guiting Power, and Naunton. 

§ See " Salopia Antiqua," by the Rev. Charles Henry Hartshome, Int., p. 12. 

|| See " Rycknield Street." 

^[ Belonging to Lady Louisa Lygon ; not to Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., as 
stated in the " Salopia Antiqua." 

** The seat of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. 



3J8 

both have been much defaced by the plough. A mound or vallum 
runs across the Camp Field, between the two camps. This most 
probably formed part of the Salt-way. 

Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart., in his " History of Wiltshire," 
Vol. ii., p. 43, describes a small camp, similar to the above, on 
the ridge of a hill, near Banwell, in Somersetshire. He says, — 
" Its form proclaims it to be Roman ; but I cannot conceive for 
what it was destined. It measures, in circumference, 230 yards ; 
and the area comprehends nearly three-quarters of an acre." 

It seems probable that these small camps were intermediate 
watch, signal, or guard stations, to protect messengers, &c, in the 
lines of the roads between the greater camps. There is a con- 
siderable camp in the line in question, at Condicote, and also at 
Bourton-on-the- Water ; and within about two miles north-east of 
Middle Hill Camps, there is a large camp, commonly attributed 
to the Danes, situated by Farncombe, between Broadway village 
and Saintbury, on Willersey Hill, in Camp Farm*, Gloucester- 
shire, just upon the border of Worcestershire. About seven 
miles further on, in the same direction, there is a camp on Meon 
Hill, in Gloucestershire, near to Upper Quinton, Lower Quinton, 
and Quinton Field, and midway between the Rycknield Street 
on the west, and the Fossway on the east. This no doubt was a 
most important station. 

Before leaving Meon Hill f, we will say a few words on the 
derivation of the name. Camden supposed the place called 
Meon Stoke, in the county of Southampton, " to derive its 
name from the ancient district of Meanwari, which, together with 
the Isle of Wight, was given to Ethelwald, king of the West 
Saxons, at his baptism, by Wulphere, king of the Mercians, who 
was his god-father {." 

* By the camp there is a great heap of stones, prohahly a cairn. 

+ Near it there are places called Upper Meon and Lower Meon. The 
name is sometimes spelled Meen and Mean. There is a hamlet called Mean- 
wood, in the parish of Leeds, Co. York. 

| Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary of England," puhlished 1848. 
There are also East Meon and West Meon, Co. Southampton. See " Codex 
Dip.," Nos. 314, &c, and 158. 



319 

There was a place called the Wilderness of Maori, in the Holy 
Land ; " it was a mountainous district, in the most southern 
parts of Judah. Calmet supposes it to be the city of Menois, 
which Eusebius places in the vicinity of Gaza, and the Msenaemi 
Castrum, which the Theodosian Code places near to Beer-sheba*." 

But still the question is, from whence the remarkable hill in 
Gloucestershire took its name. As it was a strong-hold of the 
Anglo-Saxons, it possibly may have been named by them. The 
word " Meon " signifies the fifth heaven, the dwelling-place, 
according to the rabbins f ; but we can scarcely believe that the 
Anglo-Saxons, even if they named the hill, and that after their 
conversion to Christianity, took it from the above source \, as they 
were not likely to know anything about rabbinal learning ; no 
such difficulty, however, attaches to their having called a hill, 
which lies on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Smite, by the name 
of " Babel's Hill§." 

It is stated in Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary," that " the 
parish of Quinton is distinguished as the scene of a great battle 
between the Saxons and Danes; and on the summit of Meen 
Hill are the remains of a Saxon camp||, with double intrench- 
ments, supposed to have been occupied by the West Saxons, at 
the period of their engagements with the Mercians, at Barring- 
ton." It is also stated, that the neigbouring town of " Chipping 
Camden, a place of very great antiquity, is supposed to have 
derived its name from an encampment, formed prior to a battle 
between the Mercians and the West Saxons. In 689, a congress 
of the Saxon chiefs, confederated for the conquest of Britain, 
was held here." 

In the reign of Charles I.,U Mr. Robert Dover established 



* Dr. Adam Clarke's "Com.," on25thvei\of Chap, xxiii. of First Book of Sam. 

t Ibid., on Chap. xii. of 2 Cor., ver. 2. 

j The word Meon likewise signifies the moon; also, men, a multitude, &e. 

§ See Warndon, p. 295. 

|| Various Koman, Anglo-Saxon, and other relics have been found in the 
vicinity; namely, at Four-Shire Stone, Dom, Badsey, Church Honeybourne, 
Offenham, and Cleeve Prior. 

^[ Or James I. 



320 

Whitsun-week games on the Cotswolcl Hills, which are described 
in a book published in London in 1636, intituled, "Annalia 
Dvbrensia, vpon the yearly celebration of Mr. Kobert Dover's 
Olympic Games upon Cotswold Hills ;" wherein one of the 
authors speaks of the " sweet Meonian quill of Homer." These 
games, although very much degenerated, are still celebrated, in 
the shape of a wake, at Chipping Camden, at a spot called 
Dover's Hill. 

The names of fields and places in the line in question, are as 
follow : — 

In St. PETEE'S PAEISH, DEOITWICH, there are several 
pieces of land called by the name of Sutnal. 

In St. ANDREW'S, DEOITWICH, there are Trimnel's Dole, 
Camp Hill, and Furlong ; Falsam Fields, Sutnall Field, Singer's 
Hill, Great and Little Singer's Hill, Masgundry Field, Lozelle 
Field, and Belfrey Lozelles. 

HADSOE was anciently called Hadeshore, or Headdes Ofre. 
In this parish is Cockshoot Hill. 

In HANBUEY, near Droitwich, there are Spa Piece, Beauhall 
Meadow, Big and Little Beauhall, and Kitsall. It was formerly 
called Heanbiri ; and Heanbyrig, in the " Saxon Chronicle," 
anno 675. There are various mentions of Heanbyrig, in the 
Saxon charters-. Dr. Nash remarks, that Hanbury means the 
village on the height f, or High-town, on account of the situation 
of the church ; and that Eoman coins are said to have been 
found there. It is called Hambyrie, in " Domesday Book." In 
836, Wiglaf, of Mercia, confirmed the liberties of Hanbury, with 
all its possessions, including salt-wells and lead- works j. 

In STOKE (or Stock) and BEADLEY, there are the Salts, 
Marl Pit Close, Part of Harcourts, Near and Far Sale's Orchard, 
Puck Croft, Beart Field, and Part of Eonsil Meadow. 

There are numerous ancient marl-pits in this county. Pliny 
says, the Britons manured their grounds with marl. 

* Vide " Codex Dip." Nos. 32, 127, 166, and 237. 
t From the Saxon, " ham," home ; " vicus," village. 
I Vide " Codex Dip.," No, 237 ; and Kemble's " Saxons in England," 
Vol. ii., p. 70. 



321 

With respect to the word " Sale," it may be remarked that the 
Salt-way is sometimes so called. In Knighton-on-Teme, there 
are Over Sale Meadow and Over Sale Field ; Salent Oak, in 
Stewards, in Sychampton, in Ombersley ; and Sallen's Field and 
Orchard, in Abberley. 

Stock and Bradley are hamlets in Fladbury. 

In FECKENHAM there are Worralls,WorraH's Hill, Norgrove, 
Merry-Come- Sorrow, Monksbury, Upper and Lower Puck Close, 
Astwood Close, Norbury Hill, North Norbury Hill, South Nor- 
bury, Old Yarn Hill, Old Yarn Hill Meadow, Tricks 's Hole, 
Allotment in Trickholes Lane, Auberry Hill, Berrow Hill, Wad- 
berrow Hill, Wadberrow Meadow, Castle Hill, Camp Field, 
Wargrave, Warridge, Bound Hill, Fearful Coppice, Holborn Hill, 
Kit's Iron, Windmill Peril, Peril Field, Great and Little Blaze 
Hill, Blaze Butts, Blaze Meadow, Big and Little Fire Field, 
Upper and Lower Horcuts, Salt Meadow, and Bidgeway. In the 
Saxon charters this name is spelled Feccanhom ; in " Domesday 
Book," it is written Fecheham. The Hoar-stone Field, in 
Feckenham, is mentioned in Chap. IV. 

DORMSTON, in " Domesday Book," is spelled Dormeston. 
Cockshute, or Cockshoot, is situated near to Dormston Hill. 

KINGTON, also called Kinton, or Kingston, alias Tokynton, 
is in " Domesday Book " written Chin tune. 

In INKBEBROW there are Bustard Hill*, Bustard 
Hill Meadow, Round Hill, Noberry Hill, First and Second 
Archer's Hill, Holbro' Field, Holbro' Piece, Holbro' Green 
Piece, Holberrow Green, First and Middle Astwood Hill, 
Astwood Meadow, Hongerhillf Meadow, Salter's Street Ground, 
Muzzy Hill, Muzzy Coppice, Devil's Bowling Green j, and 
Pimiils, or Pinhill§. This parish was formerly called Intanbeor- 



* It is said the bustards are extinct in England, and nearly so in Scotland, 
f See p. 65, as to this name. 

X The above place seems to have been named ironically, as I am informed 
it was, till lately, one of the roughest pieces of ground in the parish. 
§ Also see the " Folk-Lore. " 

¥ 



322 

gus, Intebeorgan, and Ilitanbeorg* ; in " Domesday," Inteberge 
and Inteberga. 

In CHURCH HONEYBOURNE there are Tump Bewhill 
and Pitch Hill. It was anciently written Hunburne and Honi- 
burne ; and in " Domesday Book," Hunibnrne. Ancient relics 
have been found in this parish f. 

In BROADWAY there are Rudgeway J Furlong, and Dornap. 
In the Saxon charters, it is written Bradanweg§; and in 
" Domesday Book," Bradeweia. 

* Vide " Codex Dip.," Charters, 183, 613, 644, and 898. 

f Vide p. 88. 

X Rudgeway means Ridgeway. Vide summary of the Ridgeways. 

§ See " Codex Dip.,." No. 570. 



323 



pr pui. 



THE LOWER DEVIATION SALT-WAY*, 



DROITWICH TO ASHTON UNDERHILL, SUDELEY 
CASTLE, NOBTH-LEACH, &c. 

The Lower Deviation Salt-way appears to have run from Droit- 
wich, by Hadsor and Newland Commons, along the Salt-way, and 
into the Trench Lane, which passes through Oddingley, and 
thence along the east side of the Trench Woods, and through 
Hodingtonf, by Sale Green J. It then most likely continued 
through Crowle, Broughton Hacket, and by Upton Snodsbury ; 
thence through Churchill, White Ladies Aston, Wolverton, and 
by Peopleton, Pinvin Heath, and Pershore; thence through 
Little Comberton, Bricklehampton, Elmley Castle, and along the 
part there called the Salt-way into the Bycknield Street at or near 
Ashton-under-Hill, which it crossed in its course southwards. 
This view appears to be borne out by what is stated in the 
" Beauties of England and Wales," Vol. i., pp. 61, 62 ; and by 
the following quotation from " Bichard of Cirencester §." 

" The Lower Salt- way is little known, although the parts here 
described have been actually traced. It came from Droitwich, 
crossed Worcestershire under the name of the Salt-way, appears 
to have passed the Avon somewhere below Evesham, tended 
towards the chain of hills above Sudeley Castle, where it is still 

* See pp. 314, 315, as to this title. 

+ See pp. 109, 110, as to this line of road, and the antiquities found in 
those parts. 

% See pp. 311, 321, as to Sale. 
§ Hatchard, p. 116. 



324 

visible, attended by tumuli as it runs by Hawling. Thence it 
proceeds to North Leach, where it crossed the Foss, in its way to 
Coin St. Aldwin's, on the Ikeman Street, and led to the sea- 
coast of Hampshire*." It is called " Salt-way Road" in the Ord- 
nance Map, as it passes from North Leach on the east side of 
Coin St. Dennis, Coin Rogers, and Winson, and on the west side 
of Aids worth. 

In ODDINGLEY there are places called Sitch Meadow, 
Round Hill, Ourshill, Trench Wood, and Marl Pit Field. 
In the Anglo-Saxon time, Callow Hill (Calwan Hill) was one of 
the boundaries of Oddingley f. The name is spelled Oddungalea, 
Odduncalea, Odingalea, Oddinga-lea. Oddungahlea sive Oddin- 
gleye, in several Anglo-Saxon charters J, and Oddunclei in 
" Domesday Book." With respect to the etymology of Oddingley, 
Dr. Nash says§, — " It would be childish to repeat the legend of 
two giants, Odd and Dingley, who are said to have fought upon 
the Common here ; and Dingley getting the better, Odd is said to 
have cried out, — 

" Oh Dingley, Dingley, spare my breath, 
It shall be called Oddingley Heath. 

" But perhaps it might derive its name from Oddo, a noble 
duke of the Mercians, who, together with Doddo, another Mercian 
duke, were buried in Pershore Church, the latter taking the 
habit of a monk there ||." However, the Doctor afterwards says, 
Oddingley means the field of Oding IF ; and, if by that he meant 
the Saxon God, Odin, or Woden**, we think he is quite correct. 

* By Venta Belgarium (Winchester), and Clausentum (Bittern). 

+ See Nash, Vol. ii., App. 51; and Heming's " Cartulary," p. 355. 

I See Heming's " Cartulary," p. 160, &c. 

§ Vol. ii., p. 200. 

|| Dugd. " Mon." i., 154. It is said they founded Tewkesbury Monastery, 
and Dudley Castle. — (See Saxon Chronicle.) 

^[ See Vol. ii., p. 437. There certainly was a person of the name of Odin, 
an under-tenant of land in Cheshire at the formation of the " Domesday" 
Survey. 

** It is said that Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, means Wodensbury. 
Heming's " Cartulary," p. 431, notices Wodnesfeld. 



325 

This, place is supposed to have been one of the Anglo-Saxon 
marks*. 

HIMBLETON.— In Heming's " Cartulary," pp. 355, 356, 
there are places stated to be on the boundaries of Himbleton, in 
the Anglo-Saxon times called Egbert's Thorn, Bere Croft f, 
Chester Gate, Chester Way, Badas Ash, and Win stile J. Dr. 
Nash notices, likewise, Puck Hill Corner, and Puck Hill, as 
boundaries of Himbleton mentioned in the Parliament Survey 
in 1648§. Himbleton is also called Hymelton, Hemelton, or 
Humilton. 

" In 884, iEthelred, Duke of Mercia, who acted as a viceroy 
in that new portion of iElfred's kingdom, and exercised therein all 
the royal rights as fully as any king did in his own territories, 
gave iEthelwulf five hides at Humbleton, and licence to have six 
salt pans, free of all the dues of king, duke, or public officer, but 
still reserving the rights of the landlord ||." 

HODINGTON, otherwise Huddington, or Huntenatune, is, in 
" Domesday Book," called Hudingtune. It is probable that 
this place was one of the Anglo-Saxon marks IT. 

BROUGHTON HACKETT is, in "Domesday Book," written 
Bretune. 

GRAFTON-SUPER-FLIVORD was anciently called Graston 
or Grafton. In " Domesday Book" it is written Garstune**. 

In FLYFORD FLAVELL, or Flavell Flivord, there is a 
place called Puttocs End, or Pothooks Inn ft. The name is 
spelled Flaeferth, and Fleferth in " Codex Dip.," No. 346, &c. 

In NORTH PIDELET there is a place called Ennick Ford 

In UPTON SNODSBURY there are places called Castle Hill, 
Hawfoot, Sulladine Field, and Salt Moor Meadow. This parish is 

* See pp. 228, 229. 

+ See p. 190, as to the derivation of this name. 
I Vide Nash's " History," Vol. ii., App., p. 52. 
§ Ibid., Vol. i., p. 579. 

|| See Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. ii., p. 71, and " Codex Dip.," 
No. 1066. 
If See p. 229. 

** Gars means grass in Saxon. 
++ See Lulsley, p. 249. 



326 

also called Upton Stephani, and Upton-juxta-Snodsbury. In 
" Domesday Book" it is written Snodesbyrie # . 

In CHURCHILL f, near Bredicot, there is a place called the 
Naight, meaning Ait or Island. The name of this parish is 
Circehille in " Domesday Book." It was anciently written 
Chirchehelle, Corishull, Chirshall, and Sarishell. 

NAUNTON BE AUCHAMP is also called Naunton, Newington, 
or Newintime. 

In WHITE LADIES ASTON J there are Harrold's Close, 
Far, Middle, and West Bury Field, and Low Hill. 

In STOULTON there are Wainherd's Hill,Whoyn Hills, and 
Wolverton. In the Anglo-Saxon times there were Herepath and 
Lusthorn (Lousethorn), on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Wol- 
verton §. 

In PEOPLETON there are Hunger Hill, N orchard Field, and 
Vorty Close. This parish is also called Pibleton, Peobleton, or 
Pebelton. It was formerly written Piblinton and Piphntune. 

In WYRE PIDELET, a hamlet in Fladbury, there are 
Sitchway Lane, and Sitchway Closes. It is called Pidelet or 
Piclele in " Domesday Book." Part of the church is said to be of 
undoubtedly Anglo-Saxon workmanship!]. 

In the parish of ST. ANDREW PERSHORE, there are 
Bearcroft, Sa 7 am Common Meadow, Dear Sale, Cosnett's Meadow, 
Allsborough Hill, and Tidsley Wood. Pershore, or Pearshore, 
was anciently called Perseora and PersoralT. It also contains a 
parish called Holv Cross. 

BESFORD, sometimes called Besbrook, is written Beford in 
" Domesday Book." 

LITTLE COMBERTON.— A Saxon coin of Edward the Elder 
was a few years since found in this parish. On the obverse there is 
the inscription, EADWEARD REX., and on the reverse, ABBA 

* See the " Folk-Lore." 

+ There also is Churchill, near Kidderminster. 
\ See pp. 226 to 229, as to this name. 

§ Vide Heming's " Cartulary," pp. 154, 359 ; " Codex Dip.," Nos. 570, 612, 
995, 1055. Also see the account of Oswaldslow, p. 221. 

|| See the " Rambler in Worcestershire," published in 1851, p. 331, 
Tf See " Codex Dip.," No, 570, &c. 



327 

MON, showing that Abba was the Monetarius or mint-master. 
This coin, which is in a very fine state of preservation, is in the 
collection of John Parker, Esq., of Wood Side, Perry Wood, near 
Worcester. 

ELMLEY CASTLE parish.— I have examined the line of 
the Lower Deviation Salt- way, in this parish, and find that it is an 
old and very miry bye-way running for about a mile under the name 
of the Salt-way, in a direction inclining northwards towards Per- 
shore, and southwards towards Ashton-under-Hill. Alongside of 
it there are pieces of land called Nostern's Well Piece, Hell Hole, 
Upper Salt- way Piece, Salt- way Barn*Piece, and Salt- way Coppice. 
And not far from, and overlooking it, there is a long slope called 
Starn Hillf, which rises up to a higher part of the eminence called 
the Round Hill. A piece of ground, called the Breach, lies along 
the east side of the two latter ; between them and the Salt-way 
there are pieces called Throughters and Moll Hays J. The line of 
this road continues southward to Ashton-under-Hill, and formerly 
towards Pershore ; but upon the inclosure it was diverted into the 
direction of Cropthorne. 

In this parish there is also a place called Cames or Cams 
Coomb §, a strip of ground which runs from the bottom, partly up 
the side of Bredon Hill, between two coppice woods. 

There are also in this parish Little Worrall or Middle Hill, 
Elecampane || and White Way IT Quor Piece. About half-way 
between the site of Elmley Castle ** and Kemerton Camp there 

* The Ordnance Survey notices this Salt-way Barn. 

+ See p. 128, as to this hill. Mr. Win. Moore, of Elmley, the owner of the 
hill, kindly conducted me -over this range. 

I There are places called Big and Little Moll-horn in Bromsgrove parish. 

§ Comhe, from the Anglo-Saxon Cumb, signifies a valley or a cleft in the 
hills. It signifies the same in Welsh, and is written cwm by them. 

|| Perhaps a locality of the plant of that name. 

^[ A line of road called the " Welsh Way," or " Old White Way," crosses 
Gloucestershire. The above name may throw a light upon the name Games 
or Cams Coomb, as " Can" in Welsh and Irish signifies " white." " Cain," 
however, in those languages signifies fair and chaste, and " Cam," crooked. 
There is a place called White-way Head Ashbed and Coppice, in Clifton-on- 
Teme. 

** Dr. Nash says the Castle was built in the time of William I., and de 
molished temp. Henry VIII. 



328 

is an immense mound, composed of earth and loose stones, 
called the Winds-end, which runs in an inclined plane from 
the bottom to the brow of Bredon Hill, at that part called 
Sheep Hill. Vestiges of ancient shallow excavations, to a con- 
siderable extent, appear in the adjoining pastures from whence, 
no doubt, materials were taken to form the mound. There are 
also some remarkable cuttings in the pasture on the eastern side 
of Sheep Hill, near a barn, between the mound and the site of 
the Castle, called " The Horse Camps," which it is said Avere made 
to protect the horses in the time of battle or siege. The name of 
this parish was Elmleah and Elmlseh in Anglo-Saxon times-. 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 139, 764. 



329 



Jut $<Jji« 



RYCKNIELD STEEET, OR RIDGEWAY. 

The great ancient road, called the Rycknield Street, or Ridge- 
way, is said to have passed Bidford, in Warwickshire, in its way 
from St. Davids (Menapia) to Tynemouth. Its exact course is 
little known, but some writers say it may be traced from Glouces- 
ter to Norton ; thence to a little east of Tewkesbury ; thence to 
Ashchurch, in Gloucestershire ; thence across a small portion of 
Worcestershire *, to Beckford and Ashton-under-Hill, in Glouces- 
tershire ; thence to the west of Sedgebarrow, in Worcestershire ; 
thence to Hinton, in Gloucestershire; thence a little east of 
Evesham, and through South Littleton, in Worcestershire, to 
Bidford, in Warwickshire ; \ thence through Wicksford, to Alces- 
ter; thence near Coughton, Studley, and Ipsley, in Warwickshire ; 
that it thence re-entered Worcestershire near Beoley, passes near 
Edgbaston J, in Warwickshire, and, a little west of Birmingham, 
crossed the Tame at Woodford Bridge, in Staffordshire; ran 
through Sutton Park, and by Shenston ; crossed the Waetliuger 
Streete (Watling Street) about a mile from Wall and Lichfield ; 
thence to Streetley ; crossed the Trent at Wichnor ; thence taking 
Branston in its way, it left Burton -upon-Trent half a mile to the 
east, passed through Stretton, and entered Derbyshire over Monk's 
Bridge, near Egginton. 

The direction of the road cannot be traced further, although 

* In Overbury parish. 

f See Gale's " Essay towards the Recovery of the Courses of the four Great 
Roman Ways," written about the year 1760, and inserted by Hearne, in 
Leland's " Itinerary," Vol. iv., ed. 1764. 

X See Chap. IV., concerning the Hoar-Stone which stood there. 



330 

its course is said to have been through Derby, Chesterfield, York, 
and so to Tynemouth*. 

I am, however, inclined to think that, instead of this road 
having, in the ancient British time, gone from Evesham through 
South Littleton, Middle Littleton, North Littleton, Cleeve Prior, 
and Marl Cliff, to Bidford, Alcester, and Beoley, it went through 
Offenham, Lench Wick, Sheriff's Lench, Atch Lench, Church 
Lench, Stoney Morton, and along the Ridgeway by Redditch, to 
Bordesley, in Alvechurch, near Beoley. It is probable, however, 
that the Romans, during the latter period of their dominion here, 
avoided the ridgy ground f in the last- mentioned line, and took 
the road through the former places. That part which is called 
the Ridgeway is of considerable length, and runs on the border 
of Feckenham, between Worcestershire and Warwickshire, near 
Alcester. Several antiquaries consider it to be Roman J; but it 
is more probably the ancient British part of the line of the Ryck- 
nield Street, which the Romans in part abandoned for the easier 
course. 

From Bidford to Alcester this road is called Ickenild Street in 
Yates's Map§ of Warwickshire. In the Ordnance Map, from 
thence northwards to Ipsley, it is called the Hayden-way||; thence 
from Ipsley to Beoley, and towards King's Norton and Edgbaston, 
the Icknild-way; between Birmingham and Lichfield, the Ick- 

* See Collen's " Britannia Saxonica;" also, Leland's " Itinerary," Vol, vi., 
pp. 116 to 150; and Nash's " History of Worcestershire, Vol. i., Int., p. 3. 

f The ancient Britons, no doubt, preferred the ridges of the hills for the 
lines of their roads, as the elevations afforded them greater protection against 
their enemies ; but when the Romans became settled in their government of 
this country, it was natural for them to make deviation lines to avoid difficult 
or crooked routes, see p. 237. 

X See " Beauties of England and Wales," Vol. i., pp. 01, 62, and Vol. xv., 
Part 2, p. 8. 

§ The Ordnance Map calls it the Icknield Street from Ullington, in the 
parish of Pebworth, to Bidford; but this appears to have been part of the 
Buckle Street, unless the Rycknield Street ran from South Littleton to Ulling- 
ton, and thence to Bidford, instead of going through Middle Littleton, North 
Littleton, Cleeve Prior, and Marlcliff, to Bidford. See p. 316. 

|| There is a road called the Maiden way by the Wall, and Bewcastle, in 
Cumberland. 



331 

nield Street, and so on to Wichnor-on-Trent, &c. In the Rev. 
Thomas Leman's Map of the Ancient British Trackways, how- 
ever, as set forth in the " Beauties of England and Wales*, it is 
called the " Rykenield Street," in its whole length from St. 
David's to Tynemouth. 

The following notices of this street, and of its branches between 
Beoley and Edgbaston, have been collected from various sources. 
In the " Beauties of England and Wales f" it is stated that the 
Consular- way, or " Ikening Street," passes from Alcester, through 
Alvechurch parish, and again appears at Shepley \, in Bromsgrove. 
Nash§ says, " At Shepley appears the Ikenild Street, which, 
coming out of Warwickshire at Beoly, re-enters it at Edgbaston." 
In Gough's additions to " Camden ||" it is stated that the " Yke- 
nild Street passes by Bordesley Park, in Alvechurch," and that 
" there is a lane leading from the Lickey, towards Tardebig and 
Alvechurch, commonly called Twatling Street, which, no doubt, 
is a corruption from Watling Street, a name common to Roman 
roads, as some writers have observed, there being one in Scot- 
land and two or three in England H." In p. 477, it is stated that 
" Through Alvechurch, near Bewdley (meaning Bordesley) the 
Ikening Street passes, in its way from Alchester to Wall, near 
Lichfield. It is mentioned as a boundary within this parish, in a 
deed, 30th Henry VIII.**" 

The Ikenild Street, in Alvithchurch, is also noticed in one of 
the Records of the Tower of London, relating to the county of 
Worcester ff. 

Nash, in his account of Alvechurch, says, " The Roman Con- 
sular way, called, both anciently and to this day, the Icknyng 

* Introduction, p. 13, ed. 1818. 

+ Vol. 15, Part 2, p. 0. 

I Called Scipenelea in " Codex Dip.," No. 680. 

§ Vol. i, p. 160. 

|| Vol. ii., p. 473, second edition, 1806. 

^[ Vide also the Index to Gibson's Edition of Camden's " Britannia ;" also, 
Nash, Vol. ii. Appendix, p. 107, where he quotes Bishop Lyttelton on the 
subject, who says it is sometimes called Ickle, or Ikenyld Street. 

** Nash, Vol. i , p. 17. 

+ t Pat. 12 Edw. II., p. m. 12. Vide Nash, Vol. ii. App,, p, 75. 



332 

Street, passes through Alvechurch in its course from Aulcester 
to Wall, near Litchfield. I find it mentioned as a boundary of 
land within tins parish, in an indenture between William Wyl- 
lington, Esq. and John Field, of King's Norton, dated the 30th 
year of King Henry VIII., in which the said William demises a 
yearly rent of 3s. Ad., and a heriot issuing out of a certain leasow 
called Swanshall, extending in length unto Ikneld Street, lying 
in Alvechurch. Also, one Henry de Iken}dd Street occurs as a 
witness to a grant of land in Alvechurch, in a deed of the time 
of Henry III., in the possession of Edward More r Esq." 

Hutton, in his " History of Birmingham," says, part of the 
" Ikeneld Street" is called Warstone Lane in passing through 
that neighbourhood*. 

Th above statement, that the Ikening [Rycknield] Street passes 
from Alcester through Alvechurch parish, and again appears at 
Shepley in Bromsgrovef, is strong evidence that, in the ancient 
British time, the line of this road ran to Shepley, and there joined 
the Upper Salt-way ; its course in that part was probably from 
the Ridgeway to Headless Cross ; it then passed by Redditch and 
Bordesley, through Tardebig, by Salter's Lane, Ridgway Close, 
Broad Green, and TutnalJ, in Tardebig, to Twatling Street; 
thence to the Upper Salt-way at Shepley, or Twatling Farm, and 
thence in the line of the Salt- way, by the east side of Bromsgrove 
Lickey, through Cofton or Coston Hacket, Northfield and 
Wytchall to Edgbaston, where the Salt-way branched off §. It is 
probable that the Romans varied the line in this part by carrying 
it from Evesham through the Littletons, Cleeve Prior, MarlclifF, 
Bidford, Wicksford, Alcester, Coughton, and Studley, and by 
Machbarrow Hill, through Ipsley and Beoley, along Eagle Street, 
in Beoley, and by Weatheroak or Witherock Hill, in Alvechurch ; 
that it then crossed the road called Silver Street, passed through 
King's Norton and Moseley to Edgbaston, and thus avoided the 

* See Chap. IV, 

f Ibid., concerning a mention of " Hoar-Stone," in a survey of Bromsgrove, 
Norton, and Alvechurch. 

X See p. 233, on the name Tutnal. 
§ See p. 309. 



333 

hills and tortuosities of the primitive line in that district. As 
some evidence that the Romans did thus vary the line, it may be 
remarked that there are several places in Beoley called the Port- 
way* ; and three fields near the south side of Weatheroak, in 
Alvechurch, upon the roadside leading from Beoley to King's 
Norton, two of which are called by the name of Icknield Street, 
and the third Lower Icknield Street f." In Nash's map, the whole 
of the line from Alcester to Edgbaston is described as the 
" Roman road called Ykenield Street." 

The line of the Rycknield Street, from Gloucester to Tewkes- 
bury, seems to have been through Down Hatherley by Barrow 
Wood, The Barrow, and Barrow Hill, to Tredington ; and thence 
along the RudgewayJ, by Walton Cardiff. 

The following names of fields and places occur in the line of 
this street from Gloucester, through South Littleton, to Edgbas- 
ton, near Birmingham. 

GLOUCESTER is said to have been the Caer-Gloew or Kair- 
glow (bright city) § of the ancient Britons. It surrendered to the 
Romans a.d. 44, and became the Glevum, or military station of 
that people. Tesselated pavements, coins, drinking vessels, 
lamps, and other Roman relics found at Kingsholm, the northern 
suburb ||, are mentioned in the "Transactions of the Society of 
Antiquaries^." 

It is noticed in the " Saxon Chronicle," 577, 918, as Urbs 
Gloverniae, Glocestriae, a fortified city of Mercia**. 



* There is a place called the Port-way in the Ordnance Map, a little east- 
ward of the line in question, probably a branch of the line. 

f This term, " Lower Icknield Street," does not allude to a lower road, but 
a lower field. The first field is upon the roadside, the second adjoins the 
first westward, and the third, or lower field, adjoins the second westward. 

X See the summary of the Eidgeways as to this name. 

§ Some suppose Caer-Gloew, or Glow, to be derived from a British prince 
named Gloew. 

|| This was perhaps the line of the Rycknield Street, out of Gloucester. 

^[ See Wright's " Gazetteer." 

** See Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. ii., p. 555. 



334 

Rudgeway occurs between Tredington and Walton Cardiff, Co. 
Gloucester. 

In TEWKESBURY, Co. Gloucester, Coins of Trajan and 
Maximianus were found in a meadow near to the town*. 

I have seen, in the collection of Mr. James Dudfield, of 
Tewkesbury, relics which are thus noticed in Mr. Bennett's 
" Tewkesbury Yearly Register and Magazine," for 1842, No. 30. 
" In digging the foundation of the railway station house in this 
borough, the workmen discovered, within a few yards of High 
Street, and at the depth of about eleven feet, a perfect Roman 
sepulchral urn, containing a quantity of wood ashes, some frag- 
ments of bones, and a silver coin of the Emperor Septimus 
Severus. Immediately beneath the urn was found an ancient 
earthen vessel, filled with wood ashes ; and imbedded in the ad- 
joining soil was a fine copper coin of the Emperor Commodus. 
The urn evidently was beautifully glazed, with mottled green 
glaze, but which now, on the exterior, is partially destroyed by the 
alkali in the ashes in which it was imbedded." 

In ASHCHURCH, Co. Gloucester, in the district of the 
Tithings of Northway and Newton, there are places called Cur- 
borough, Little Curborough, Three Ridges, Petter Hedge, Flat 
King's Land, Little King's Land, Carrant Meadow, Salton's 
Bridge Meadow, Long Shooters, and Short Shooters ; and in the 
Tithing of Tiddington there are places called Cop Thorne, 
Ridgway Hill, Ridgway Piece, Ridgway Meadow, Saltmere Piece, 
Tyre Field, Burrough, and Burrough Length. 

In OVERBURY, otherwise Uferebirif, Uverbirie, or Upper 
Bredon parish, Co. Worcester, there are places called Wash- 
bourn, or Wassanburnan. In " Domesday Book" Overbury is 
written Oureberie. Dr. Nash says the name means the Upper 
Village, and that Teddington in this parish signifies the town of 
Teoding. This latter place is supposed to have been one of the 

* See Gough's " Camden.', Also see p. 66, as to the Mythe Tute, near 
Tewkesbury, and p. 34, as to Eoman coins found in Oldbury Gardens, 
f See " Codex Dip." No. 308. 



335 

Anglo-Saxon marks*. In Heming's " Cartulary," p. 362, Carente, 
Bules Ditch, and Pevin-ton, are mentioned as Anglo-Saxon boun- 
daries of Teddington. The Cserent, Carantf, Cerent, or Carron 
River, runs by the South side of Bredon Hill, through Overbury, 
Kemerton, and Ashchurch parishes, into the Avon J, near Tewkes- 
bury. OrTa of Mercia gave certain property at Teottingtun,or Tetyng- 
ton, near the river Cerent, to the monastery at Bredon §. There is 
another river of this name in the north, as appears by the follow- 
ing extract from the dissertation concerning the era of Ossian|| : 

" Ossian, in one of his many lamentations on the death of his 
beloved son Oscar, mentions, among his great actions, a battle 
which he fought against Caros, king of ships, on the banks of 
the winding CarunH. It is more than probable that the Caros 
mentioned here is the same with the noted usurper Carausius, 
who assumed the purple in the year 287, and, seizing on Britain, 
defeated the Emperor Maximinian Herculius in several naval 
engagements, which gives propriety to his being called, in 
" Ossian "s Poems," the king of ships. The winding Carun is 
that small river, retaining still the name of Carron, and runs in 
the neighbourhood of Agricola's wall, which Carausius repaired 
to obstruct the invasions of the Caledonians." 

In Gough's " Camden," Vol. i., p. 77, it is stated that there is 
a village in Somersetshire, near Dunstor Castle, dedicated to a 
Saint named Caranton. 

In Little Washborn, a chapelry in Overbury, there is a place 
called the Hob Nails. 

SEDGEBERROW, otherwise spelled Seggesbury, Sedge- 
bearuwe, Secgesbearwe-, Seggesberge, and Sedgberewe, is situated 
on the western side of the brook iEsegbume. In " Domesday 
Book," Sedgeberrow is written Secgesbarue. OrTa gave Segges- 

* Seep. 229. 

f See " Codex Dip." No. 140, &c. 
I Avon is the Gaelic word for river. 

§ Heming's " Cartulary," p. 453, and Dr. Thomas A., p. 18 ; see also my 
account of the Toot Hills, p. 232, &c. 

|| See Denhani and Dick's edition, 1805, Vol. i., pp. 9, 10. 
^f " Car-avon, winding river." 



336 

berewe to Aldred, duke of the Wiccians. Various relics have 
been found here. See p. 85. 

EVESHAM. — The appellation Eovesholme, or Eovesham, is 
said to be derived from Eoves, a swineherd in the service of 
Egwin, third Bishop of Wessex, who is reported to have had a 
miraculous vision at the spot where the Abbey was afterwards 
founded. It was anciently called Homme, Haune, Hetheholme, 
Ethomne, Cronuchomme and Eovesham. 

At HAMPTON (Great) there is a place called Vineyard Hill. 
A vinery was established there in the Conqueror's time. It con- 
tains the hamlet of Little Hampton. The name is spelled 
Hantun in " Domesday Book." 

BENGEWORTH was anciently called Benningweord, or 
Benninewyrth. Dr. Nash says, the signification of this name is 
the farm or estate of Bening. 

BADSEY in " Domesday Book" is spelled Badesei. Kendred 
and OrTa granted lands here. In the title deed of an estate in 
Badsey Aldington, and Bretforton*, dated in 1722, there is a 
piece of land described as a " toft, called or known by the name 
of Toten" in Badsey, and " a close or pasture ground lying in 
Portway Furlong." It is not, however, specified in which of the 
above places the latter was situated. Ancient relics have been 
found in this parish f. 

ALDINGTON, anciently Ealdenadun J, is supposed to have 
been one of the Anglo-Saxon " marks §." 

In WICKHAMFOPJ) there are, Green Street, Pitcher's 
Hill, Came's Acre, Coomb Nap, (Knap). — Wickhamford was 
anciently called Wicque. In " Domesday Book" it is Wiquene ; 
and in a charter of Kendred and Offa, Wikewane. 

In SOUTH LITTLETON are, Vineyard Orchard and 
Howburn Hill. In " Domesday Book" this place is written 
Liteltune. 



* Bretforton is noticed in the " Codex Dip.," No. 280. 

t See pp. 87, 88. 

X See " Codex Dip.," No. Gl. 

§ See p. 229. 



337 

CLEEVE PRIOR* was anciently called Clive. In May's 
" History of Evesham f", it is stated, that at " Cleeve Prior, 
being the portion between Bidford and Littleton, the road 
(Rycknield Street) may be clearly traced along the verge of the 
wide-spread terrace that slopes upward from the river's brink, and 
expands into a level plane of greensward from Marl Cleeve to 
Offenham, including Cleeve Prior and the three Littletons J in 
its extent. This road has now the appearance of a mere bridle- 
path some six feet in width." 

MARLCLIFF, in Warwickshire, is called Marlclceve, or 
Martcleeve. 

In GREAT ALNE, Co. Warwick, near Alcester, there are 
places called Hobbin's Close, Curmoor (or Carmore) Hill, Cur- 
moor Corner, GrafTel's Orchard, Elvin's Close, Pecket§ Stones, 
and Brittains. 

In IPSLEY, Co. Warwick, there are, — Shakespeare Ground, 
Jack Ground, Marl-pit Close, Jack's Croft, Round Hill, Bloody 
Pit, and Hob's Croft. 

In BEOLEY, Co. Worcester, there are, — Ravensbank ; Pleck 
by Portway Road ; Close south of Portway ; Hob's Croft Close 
next to Portway ; Torment Hill, Round Hills, Aldborough 
Meadow and Ground, The Tranters, Ground above Eagle Street |[, 
Kitcroft, Phasom, Hob Hill, Hob Meadow, Hob Rough, Little 
Hob Hill ; Ground next Portway ; Sling near Elvins ; Pink 
Field, Pink's Green, Bransom's or Branston's Cross, Astley 
Ground, Great Storage Hill and Coppice, Little Storage Hill, 
Pleck at Dagnel-end Lane, Pleck by Portway Road. — The name of 
this parish was formerly Body and Brokeleigh. In " Domesday 
Book" it is called Beoly. 

There are relics of a square trenched camp at the top of Beoley 

* See p. 91, &c, as to ancient relies found there, 
f Second edition, p. 363. 
X Namely, North, Middle, and South Littleton. 
§ Perhaps means peaked stones. 

|| This is by the roadside which leads from Studley and Ipsley parishes to 
Wetheroak hill, Alvechurch. 

z 



338 

Hill, about three or four hundred yards from the Rycknield 
Street. The plateau in the centre is about sixty or seventy yards 
square, and the entrance appears to have been at the north side 
of it. 

In OLDBERROW, otherwise Oldburrow, or Owlborough, Co. 
Worcester, there are, — Harding's Pleck, Harding's Meadow, 
Wharnap Hill, Great Cadboro', Cadboro' Coppice, Banner's 
Hill, Puck Meadow, little Oldborough, Little Oldborough Wood, 
and Gospel Bit. This parish was anciently called Ulberge. In 
" Domesday Book" it is written Oleberga. Dr. Nash says, " it 
is called Old Barrow, or Borough, from an ancient tumulus here, 
though some have conjectured it Owlborough*, from the quantity 
of those birds which were found here ; certain it is, that at the 
latter end of the reign of Edward III. there was a family of the 
Owleborough's here, and their arms were three Owls, as painted 
in the church windows." 

In the " Companion to Greenwood's Map of Worcester," pub- 
lished in 1822, it is stated, that Oldberrow " takes its name from 
an ancient tumulus, wherein several curious warlike weapons 
have been found at different periods." 

With respect to the etymology of the names " Great Cadboro'," 
and " Cadboro' Coppice," it may be observed, that the words 
" Cad" in Welsh, and " Cath" in Irish, signify a battle. In " An 
Inquiry into the History of King Arthur," which appeared in the 
" Gentleman's Magazine" for July 1842, it is stated, in the 
account of the " Battle of Cadbury," that " Agned Cathbregion 
has been generally recognised in the modern Cadbury, a place of 
considerable natural strength. In Somersetshire there are North 
and South Cadbury. There is also Cadbury Camp or Castle, 
near Tiverton, Co. Devon, where Roman remains have been 
found f, and Cadbury parish, in Devonshire. 

There also are pieces of land in Worcestershire called Cadmore 
Field, and Cadmore Meadow 7 , in Berrington in Tenbury. 

In ALVECHURCH, Co. Worcester, there are,— Impey, 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 60, as to Ulanuyl (Owlwell), in Worcestershire. 
+ See the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. v., p. 191, &c. 



Icknield Street, Lower Icknield Street, The Himpey, Will 
Fields, Cob's Meadow, Pennils or Pinhill, Round Hill, Battle 
Field, Robin's Hill, Long Cross Himpey, and Long Himpey 
Street and Meadow. This parish is vulgarly called Allchurch ; 
it was anciently designated Alvinechurch, Alveinecherche, 
Alviethcherche, and iElfgythe-cyrcea. 

In KINGS NORTON, Co. Worcester, which includes the 
chapelries of Moseley and Wythall, there are, — Tin Meadow, 
Hob Irons, Round Hill, The Dole, Hobbis's Piece, Pucklin's 
Meadow ; Big, Little, Upper, Middle, and Lower Pucklins, Puck- 
lin's Lane, Warstone, Warstock Piece, Barrow Field, Upper 
Dobbins and Lower Dobbins. 

In SOLIHULL, Co. Warwick, there are, — Street's Brook 
Coppice, Street's Brook Meadow, Copt Heath, Hobbin's Close on 
Copt Heath, Warstoc Corner, Camp Close, The Bufferys, Puck- 
nell's Close, Jack Lands, War-croft, War Meadow, Waring's 
Coppice, Shirley Street Meadow, Dumble Pit, Hare-croft, Near 
Hare-croft, Upper, Lower, and Far Elkin, and Hob's Moat. 

In YARDLEY, Co. Worcester, anciently Eardleah *, Gyrd- 
leah, and Gyrdleaf, there are, Ballondes Lane, and Hell Bank. 

The following Names occur in the supposed Route of the 
Rycknield Street, from Evesham to Edgbaston. 

In OFFENHAM, or Uffenham, there are,— Norvill, Upper, 
Middle, and Lower Norvill, and Hob's Hole. Antiquities have 
been found here. — Vide p. 90. 

In NORTON (alias Abbot's Norton) and Lenchwick, there 
are, — Asken Corner, Upper Sytch, Long Dragon's Piece, Chad- 
bury, and Swatman's Ground. In " Domesday Book," Norton is 
written Nortune. This name signifies North-town. 

In HARVINGTON, formerly Hervertonne \, there are, — 
Green Street, Round Hill, and Nurder. In Heming's " Car- 

* See " Codex Dip.," No. 507. 
f Ibid., 570, 816, 1322. 
J Ibid., No. 61. 



340 

tulary," p. 347, there are, Hunningham Street, and Wistan's 
Bridge, on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Harvington*. " The 
Round Hill" is a small meadow on the Harvington Manor House 
Estate, and the two adjoining fields are called " The Bury 
Lenches." At the present day there is no tumulus to be met 
with in the meadow, nor yet in the Lenches ; the inference from 
this is, that the Bound Hill was removed a long time back. 
Nashf says, that the name Harvington, formerly Hereforton, 
means, " The town on the military ford." In " Domesday Book" 
Harvington is written Herferthun. This place is supposed to 
have been one of the Anglo-Saxon " marks J." 

In THE HAMLET OF ABBOT'S LENCH, or Habbe or 
Hob Lench, in the parish of Fladbury, there are, — Rudge Hill, 
Salter's Green Meadow, Puck Piece, Old Ford Meadow, Ran's 
Orchard, Dragon's Hole, First and Second Cold Well, and Yell 
Wood. 

In the hamlet of SHERIFF'S LENCH, or Shreve Lench, 
in the parish of Church Lench, there are Wad Close, Upper 
Hobbs, Farther and Nether Hob Lays, and Balaam s Way. 

In the hamlet of ATCH, AST, or EAST LENCH, in Church 
Lench, there are Pitchall Hill and Can Lane. 

CHURCH LENCH is described as Biscopesleng, in " Domes- 
day Book." 

ROUS LENCH.— There is Yeald Wood between it and 
Church Lench. 

In ABBERTON there are places called Salt-way Piece and 
Puck Pit Ground. In " Domesday Book," Abberton is written 
Ebbritone. 

In BISHAMPTON (formerly Biscopes dun §), there is a 
place called Gunning's Lane. 

A few years back, a coin of Constantine w r as dug up in Abbot's 
Morton, otherwise Stoney Morton. 



* Vide also Nash, Vol. ii., App., p. 44. 

f Vol. ii., p. 437. 

+ See p. 229. 

§ See " Codex Dip.," No, 724. 



341 

The particulars of Inkberrow and Feckenham will be found in 
the account of the Lower Salt- way, p. 321. 

In TARDEBIG (called Terdeberie in " Domesday Book,") 
there are the Round Hill, Little Round Hill, Robin's Piece, Big 
and Little Robin's, Dole Meadow, Wimble Dole, Big Wimble 
Dole, Big and Little Bear Hill, Upper and Lower Bear's Leasow, 
Hobbis or Obbis Meadow, Hobbis's or Obbis's Cur Lane, Ridge- 
way Close, Wassel's Meadow, Holborn, and Tibb Ribbin. Nash 
states that this name signifies the Big Tower; but it seems 
more probable that it owes its derivation to a Tor, Tar, or Fire 
Tower*, which may probably have stood either on the site of the 
present church, or on Tutnal Mount. Heming, in his " Cartulary," 
p. 362, mentions Elfled's Bridget and Dip-well among the Anglo- 
Saxon boundaries of Tardebig. 

Tutnal and Cobley are hamlets in Tardebig ; they formerly 
belonged to Worcestershire, as appears by " Domesday Book ;" 
but afterwards became detached parts of Warwickshire ; however, 
they have been re-attached to Worcestershire by the Reform Bill. 

Bentley, in Tardebig, was formerly called Bentelegh and 
Beonetley. 

On the border of the chapelry of Bordesley is a place named 
Pickefields. 

The particulars of Cofton Hacket, Northfield, and Edgbaston, 
are given in the account of the Upper Salt-way. 

There is no trace of the Rycknield Street to be met with in the 
Ordnance Map, throughout the whole line from Gloucester to 
Bidford, except from Honeybourne (or rather Ullington) to 
Bidford ; which, however, is probably a mistake, as mentioned in 
pp. 317, 330 ; the discovery, however, as previously detailed, of 
Roman and other relics, at various places ; for instance, at Oldbury 
Gardens, in Tewkesbury ; Sedgebarrow, Kemerton Hill, Conder- 
ton Hill, Elmeley Castle, Badsey, Bratforton, Offenham, Har- 
vington, and Cleeve Prior — all in or near the line from Tewkesbury 
to Bidford — strongly corroborates the allegation that the Rycknield 

* See Old Storage, p. 190. 

■i- This, no doubt, was a bridge built by the Lady ^Ethelflsed. 



342 

Street did rim in that direction. In " Richard of Cirencester," 
the sites of the stations on this line are set forth in Iter XIV., p. 
15 '2, as follows : — 

From " Rose or Berry Hill, in Weston," under Penyard, near 
Ross, to 

Miles. 
Glebon Colonia, . . 15 Gloucester ; 
Ad Antonam, . . . 15 On the Avon ; 
Alauna, 15 Alcester, on the Aln. 

The editor, Mr. Hatcher, remarks, in a note : — " As the 
author has only left the name of a river for the next station to 
Gloucester, it must be placed in such a situation on the Avon as 
to admit the distance of fifteen miles from the next station of 
Alcester, which was the site of Alauna. This would carry it to 
the westward of Evesham." 

Taking it to be correct, that the station at Gloucester was 
fifteen miles from the station called Ad Antonam, as stated by 
" Richard," it would bring us to Eckington, upon the Avon, 
which coincides exactly, as to distance, if taken in a straight line. 

This is the place which I pointed out, in my previous accounts, 
as the probable lost station, "Ad Antonam*." And, supposing 
there were only fifteen miles from the latter station to Alcester, 
as stated by Richard of Cirencester, he must, in like manner 
have taken the straight line between those two places, which is 
also about fifteen miles. This goes to prove that the Rycknield 
Street ran in two lines in this part, namely : first in a curved line, 
from Tewkesbury to Alcester, through Ashchurch, Beckford, 
Ashton-under-Hill, Sedgebarrow, andHinton, to Evesham, &c, as 
before suggested ; and, secondly, in the nearly direct line from 
Tewkesbury, through Bredon Hardwick, Bredon, Norton in 
Bredon, Eckington (the probable Ad Antonam), and across the 
Avon there ; thence through Birlingham, across the Avon again, 
and by Great Comberton, Little Comberton, Fladbury, and Crop- 
thorne ; across the Avon at Chadbury Ferry, and through Lench 
Wyke, Norton, Harvington, and Atch Lench, to Alcester. It is 

* See p. 75. 



343 

probable that the curved line was the most ancient, and that the 
more direct road was the work of the later Romans. 

Dr. Stukeley considered Evesham to be the station Ad An- 
tonam*, while others believed it to have been near Sedgebarrow ; 
but as Evesham is twenty-two miles from Gloucester, it could 
not (according to " Richard of Cirencester,") have been the 
Ad Antonam ; and Sedgebarrow is not only nineteen miles from 
Gloucester, but three miles from the Avon ; and therefore no 
more likely to have been the station than the former place. 
The only other probable place, besides Eckington, is Norton, in 
Bredon, about fourteen miles from Gloucester, " as the crow 
flies," and near the Avon, where, as previously stated f, ancient 
relics have been found, as well as at Eckington. 

The latter place, however, is the more probable of the two, as 
the Avon there lies directly across the road J, and Roman relics 
have been found there, as previously described in the account of 
Eckington. According to Tacitus, Ostorius Scapula, in the year 
52, extended a chain of forts between the rivers Avon and Severn 
to keep the Britons in check. " Ostorius detrahere arma sus- 
pectis, cinctosque castris Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere 
paret. — [Tacitus, " Annals," Book xii., Sec. 21.] Upon this Mr. 
May has observed, " Camden's arbitrary alteration of this passage, 
from Antona to Aufona [' Brit.' p. 515], bolstered up by his subse- 
quent infliction of the name Avon-upon-the-Nen — by which, even 
on his own admission, that river is never called — are equally in- 
defensible. For, as Dr. Stukeley has observed, it could not pos- 
sibly be the Nyne, or Nen, in Northamptonshire, that being too 
distant from the Severn" — P. 365. 

It may be here observed that the discovery of so many ancient 
relics at Eckington and its vicinity, as previously described, not 
only goes to prove that it was the Ad Antonam, but corroborates 
the truth of Richard of Cirencester's statement upon the subject, 



* " Richard of Cirencester," p. 134, seventh edition, 1776. 
t See pp. 76, 77. 

I Mr. May, in his " History of Evesham," p. 364, contends that the station 
in question lay in the vicinity of the encampments on Bredon Hill. 



344 

and the discovery of Roman relics at Droit wich, with the site of a 
supposed fort of Ostorius, and other Roman relics at Worcester, 
as previously described, tend strongly to prove that the former 
was the Salinas, and the latter the Bravinio, Branogenio, or Bran- 
nogenium .of the Romans. 

We will now say a few words on a matter of importance, the 
probable stations of the different forts of Ostorius on the Severn, 
in Worcestershire, and on the borders of that county, with their 
respective distances from each other. Supposing them to 
have been about five or six miles apart, the first from Worcester, 
in the line of the Severn southward, would be at Kempsey, where, 
as before stated, there was a Roman camp-. The next would be 
either at Upton, the supposed Upocessa of Ravennas, or at Saxon's 
Lode, near by, on the east side of the river f; the next at the 
Mythe Tute, near Tewkesbury J, and so on to Gloucester. The 
space between Upton and the Mythe Tute is rich in Roman re- 
mains, particularly at Ripple and Twining. Near the Mythe 
Tute the Avon joins the Severn, and if the forts of Ostorius also 
ran along the Avon, the first would, according to our scale of dis- 
tance, be at Eckington§ (the supposed Antonam) ; the next would 
be at Cropthorne, or Fladbury, where there is a place called Port- 
way ; the next would be at Bengeworth ; the next either at Har- 
vington or Cleeve Prior, at the former of which places Roman 
names, or rather Saxon names of British and Roman roads occur, 
while at the latter, Roman relics have been found ||. On the east 
side of the Severn, north of Worcester, the first of the forts of 
Ostorius, according to our scale, would be in the parish of Om- 
bersley, at an earth-workU by the river side, within a mile of the 

* See pp. 54 to 60. 

+ See pp. 60, 61, 62. 

J See p. 66. 

§ Some have supposed that the adjoining camp on Bredon Hill, in Kemer- 
ton, was the work of Ostorius ; others that it is Danish ; hut it seems most 
prohahle that it is ancient British. Vide " Ambrosia? Petree," Chap. II. 

|| See pp. 91 to 94. 

*j\ It is considered by some Archaeologists that this earth-work is of ancient 
British origin. I am informed that it has the appearance of the site of a fort 
and that there is a winding path up to it, as at the Mythe Tute. See p. 66. 



345 

village. The next at Stourport; the next at Wribbenhall, by 
Bewdley ; and the next at Over Arley* ; a full description of all 
which places will be found in this work. 

We must now return to the supposed deviation line of the 
Rycknield Street from Tewkesbury, through Eckington to 
Alcester. 

In NORTON, in BREDON, there are Ridgeway Furlong, 
Ridgeway Far Close, Ridgeway Middle Close, Ridgeway Little 
Meadow, Ridgeway Ground t, Calmus Hill, and several places called 
Clatsmoor and Hickley. Various Anglo-Saxon relics have been 
found in this chapelryj. On the south-west declivity of Bredon 
Hill, just above the village of Norton, there are two tall turret- 
like masses of white oolite rock, commonly called " The King and 
Queen." A manorial court was held at this spot, as we learn 
from an old document in Nash's " Worcestershire §." 

The parish of BREDON, or Breedon, anciently spelled Breodun 
and Breodune||, contains the chapelries of Norton and Cutsdean, 
and the hamlets of Bredon, Hardwick-with-Mitton, Kinsham and 
Westmancote. 

ECKINGTON was anciently called Eccingtun, EccyncgtunH, 
and Ackintune. Wollashul, Wollashill, Wollershull, or Wallers- 
hill, lies in this parish, and Nafford. Roman-British relics have 
been found there**. Eckington is supposed to have been one of 
the Anglo-Saxon marks ff. 

* And so on to Shrewsbury. See p. 289, relative to the probability that 
the Port-way accompanied this line of forts from Worcester to Over Arley, 
and perhaps to Shrewsbury. 

-f- These names are strong presumptive evidence that the Romans did carry 
a branch line of the Rycknield Street, or Ridgeway, from Tewkesbury, through 
Eckington, to Alcester. 

+ Vide p. 76. 

§ See the " Rambler in Worcestershire," published in 1848, p. 159, and the 
" Report of the Archaeological Association at Worcester, in 1851," p. 27 7. 

|| See pp. 78 to 84, relative to Kemerton Camp, Banbury Stone, an ancient 
granary, and other relics on Bredon Hill. Also the account of " Ambrosiae 
Petree," Chap. II. ; and the derivation of the word Bredon, p. 84. 

<[ See « Codex Dip." No. 570, 1298. 

** Vide, pp. 74, 75. ff See p. 220. 



3±<5 

In BIRLINGHAM, anciently Burlingham, or Byrlingaham*, 
there are Hurrill's Hill, the Old Ait, In Asham Meadow, and 
Tibley. This place is supposed to be one of the Anglo- Saxon 
marks f . 

In DEFFORD there are places called Part of Horell Orchard 
and Hales Well. Between Defford and Besford there is Horrell 
Wood. This place was anciently spelled Deopanford J, Depeford, 
and Dufford ; and in " Domesday Book," Depeforde. 

COMBERTON, anciently Combrintone. 

In FLADBURY there is a place called Portway. This parish, 
in ancient times, was usually spelled Fleodanbyryg, or Fledan- 
byrig§. In " Domesday Book," Fledebirie. Dr. Nash says the 
name signifies the village of the stream. Bradley, in Fladbury, 
was formerly called Bradanlaegh. 

CROPTHORNE was anciently called Croppanthorn|| and 
Copperne, and in " Domesday Book," Cropethorn. 

CHADBURY FERRY is a ferry over the Avon, from Crop- 
thorne into Chadbuiy, in Lenchwick, a tithing in Norton, alias 
Abbot's Norton. 

It is possible that a branch road ran from Eckington, by the 
north side of Bredon Hill, through Elmley Castle parish, and 
along the Salt-way, into the Rycknield Street at Ashton-under- 
Hill, thus jointly with the main line performing the complete 
circuit of Bredon Hill, the great bulwark of that part of the 
county. 

The line of the Rycknield Street is pretty well defined in the 
Ordnance Map, under the name of the Icknield Street, &c, from 
Bidford and Alcester, northwards to Lichfield, and Wichnor-on- 
Trent, &c. However, we cannot but here remark on the impro- 
priety of thus confusing any part of the Rycknield with the 
Inknield Street, since this latter runs quite in another direction, 
namely, through the southern part of the kingdom. 

A modern reviewer, writing of the Rycknield Street, saysll, 

* See " Codex Dip." No. 570. f See p. 229. 

♦ See " Codex Dip. - ' No. 570. § " Codex Dip." No. 33. 
;| See " Codex Dip." Nos. 139, 247, 514, 1358. 

*ft See " Gentleman's Magazine" for November, 1840. 



347 

" Having mentioned the Rycknield Street, one word of its ety- 
mology : in our view it is attainable without those efforts which 
have ingeniously been bestowed on it by some antiquaries, who 
will have it to be the Upper Ikenield Way ; with the old Icenian 
road, its geographical position can, however, give it no connection. 
Is it not simply the old Ridge- way ? Ric or Reac is the Saxon 
term for a heap or dorsal elevation of any kind, and its sense is 
fully retained in the agricultural word " rick ;" and if this accepta- 
tion be disputed, there is yet another for the term, which would 
make it the chief or royal way, in short, par eminence, the king's 
highway." 

In this view of the name we are disposed entirely to agree, for we 
find in various parts of the main lines of the Rycknield Street*, 
and also in the numerous branches which issued from it, that the 
name Ridgeway frequently occurs -j-. 

The ancient British and Gaulish words Rix and Rich, and the 
eastern word Rik, mean strong and powerful j. The Saxon 
word Ric or Reac also means strong and powerful, likewise a 
heap or dorsal elevation of any kind, and as elevated situations 
were the strong and powerful positions of the ancient Britons, we 
may probably look here fbr the origin of the name§. 

The " Gentleman's Magazine" for Jan. 1836, p. 48, contains 
the following communication, relative to the " Rycknield" Street: 

" In Nichols's ' History of Leicestershire' (Introduction, 
p. 147), the course of an ancient way, designated ' Via Devana] 
a name which has not, as I am aware, the sanction of antiquity, 
is very particularly traced through several of the midland coun- 
ties, and which appears to have been the connecting road between 



* The term "Rycknield Street" does not appear out of the two main lines 
( that is the ancient British line and the Roman deviation line), hut in the 
branches the term Ridgeway is used. 

+ See the summary of them, Chap. VIII. 

X See ' ; Britannia Antiqua," by Aylett Sammes, p. 68. 

§ See Chap. I., as to the Saxon word Wic, signifying either a station, man- 
sion, place of security, or secure habitation, from the Avoid " wician," to 
inhabit. 



348 

the two distant Roman cities of Deva (Chester) and Camalodu- 
nuru (Colchester). The writer of that article, the Rev. T. Leman, 
states it to have been first noticed by the late Dr. Mason, and 
that he, Mr. Leman, with the Bishop of Cork, travelled the 
greater part of it in 1798 and 1799. He says, it was traced 
through the principal part of Staffordshire with little difficulty, 
and particularly from Draycott straight to Lane Delph, and then 
by Wolstanton Church to the station at Chesterton (in the 
neighbourhood of which I w T rite), and which is now generally con- 
sidered to be the Mediolanum, at which Antonine's tenth Iter 
terminates. Now, upon referring to one of the Harleian Manu- 
scripts in the British Museum (No. '2060), being a copy of the 
foundation charter of the Abbey of Hulton, dated in 1223, I find 
the Rykeneld Street mentioned as a boundary of lands in Nor- 
mancote, bestowed upon that abbey ; and it happens that the 
road from Draycott to Lane Delph, above spoken of by Mr. 
Leman, still forms the boundary of Normancote Grange for the 
distance of at least a mile, so that Ryknield Street is most clearly 
identified, by a document more than six hundred years old, with 
the Chester and Colchester way, denominated Via Devana by 
modern geographers." 

The following notice of the Rycknield Street, from another 
correspondent, occurs in the " Gentleman's Magazine" for April 
1836, p. 338:— 

" Higden, in his ' Polychronicon,' which he finished up to the 
year 1342, speaking ' on the Royal Roads' of England, says : ' of 
the four, the fourth was called Rykenild Street, and stretcheth 
forth by Worcester, Wycombe, Brymingham, Lychefelde, Derby, 
Chestrefelde, York, and forth unto Tynemouth.' This is from 
De Woorde's edition ; and that of Oxford, in Latin, begins it at 
' Manovia, in West Wallia,' and, proceeding by the same route, 
ends it at Tynemouth. Higden was a Cheshire man, and a monk 
in the city of Chester. The ' Eulogium Historiarum,' in the 
British Museum (Galba, E. vii.), gives it also the same line ; 
but, between Menavia and Wygornia, make it pass ' per Here- 
fordiam.' Harrison, in his ' Description of England,' says, some 
call ' Erming Street, The Lelme,' and then describes the Ikenild, 



349 

or Kikenild, as beginning some way in the south, and passing 
towards Cirencester and Worcester, and thence by Wycombe, &c, 
to the mouth of the Tyne. Drayton also begins it at ' Cambria's 
further shore,' at St. David's, makes it overtake the Fosse, and 
decline into the German Sea at 'the Fall of Tyne.' I will add 
to these notices, that the foundation charter of the Abbey of 
Hilton, in Shropshire, describes a boundary of property granted 
to it, as ' ascendendo per Richineld Street, at per Villam de 
Mere. Seldon, in his notes on the ' Polyolbion,' says Ricen-ild 
Street is mentioned in ' Randul of Chester (Higden), as beginning 
at St. Dawies, in Pembroke, going through Hereford, and ending 
at Tinmouth. The Additions to " Camden" mention a survey of 
the County of Derby, of the 7th century, which calls it, as it 
passes over Tupton Moor, ' Rignal Street;' and Lysons, in his 
' Derbyshire,' says that an old survey of Sir H. Hunloke's pro- 
perty in Derbyshire, says, that Rikenild Street was there called 
Rignal Street, as well as in other estates in Warwickshire and 
Staffordshire, where it is described as a boundary. Rickenhall, 
in the parish of Aycliffe, in the County of Durham, probably had 
its name from this road passing near it ; and it is still, in its 
course from the top of Gateshead Fell to the mouth of the Tyne, 
in many places very visible, still used as a road, and called 
Wrecken-dyke. And here, in writings of the 12th and 13th 
centuries, I have found lands upon which it abutted, called Wrack- 
ennelberge, and itself written Wrakyn-dik and Wraken-dyke." 

There is also a paper expressly upon this subject in the 
" Archseologia iEliana.;" and in the " Archaeological Journal of 
the Institute," Vol. vi., pp. 323, 324, there is the following 



" Some authors speak of another ' Ikenild Street' from ' Tra- 
jectus Augusti' (Aust Passage), on the Severn, to Cirencester, 
and there meeting the Akeman Street, which extended to Alees- 
ter, in Berkshire. In this there appears to be some confusion ; 
the road from Aust Passage appears to fall into the ' Ridgeway,' 
near Old Down, in its course between Bristol and Gloucester, and 
is not satisfactorily traced as far as Cirencester." 

In the " Archasologia," Vol. xxix., p. 7, occurs the following 



350 

allusion to the street in question : — " In an essay, by Roger 
Gale*, on the Roman Roads of Britain, the following opinion 
occurs with respect to the Rycknield Street : — He considers the 
Ryknield Street to have come from the north to Gloucester, and 
to have proceeded thence, ' in all probability, to Oldbury, where 
formerly was the Ferry or Trajectus over Severn, towards Caer- 
gwent ; and if it did not run so far as St. David's, yet it may very 
well be supposed to have gone to Maridunum (Carmardhin), and 
to have taken in that branch of Antonine's Itinerary that lies 
from Maridunum to Isca. The Strata Julia may have been part 
of it," 

According to Leman's " Itineraryf," the course of this road 
was by Chester-le-Street, Boroughbridge, Chesterfield, Sutton 
Coldfield, Birmingham, Alcester, across the Avon, to Bidford, 
and a little to the east of Evesham ; hence leaving Tewkesbury 
on the right, through Gloucester, Chepstow, Abergavenny, and 
Caermarthen. 

In the " Beauties of England and Wales," it is stated that the 
Rycknield Street passed from Gloucester to Berry Hill, Here- 
fordshire, and probably by Abergavenny, Brecon, Llandilo 
Vawr, and Caermarthen, to St. David's. 

The course of the Rycknield Street, from St. David's to Tewkes- 
bury, seems, in the ancient British and early Roman times, to 
have been, as before stated, from Menapia (St. David's), by Mari- 
dunum (Caermarthen |), and Isca (i.e. Iscalegua), Silurium 
(Caerleon§), Ballium, Usk[|, Blestium, Monmouth, toAriconium, 
(Berry Hill, near Ross) ; thence it probably passed by Brampton 

* Leland's " Itin.," edit. 1767, Vol. vi., p. 138. 

+ Vol. iv., Part 1, p. 65, edit. 1764. 

I See the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," Vol. vii., p. 173, as to 
Eoman relics found at Landovery, in Caermarthenshire, near the Roman road 
called Sarn Helen, or Helens Road. 

§ Vide ibid., Vol. viii., p. 157, &c, and the previous journals there cited, 
concerning Roman relics found at Caerleon. 

|j Some say from Usk, through Abergavenny, to Monmouth ; but that place 
appears to be too much out of this line. There was an ancient road from 
Caerleon, through Usk, Abergavenny, Kenchester, and Lentwardine, to 
Wroxeter. 



351 

Abbots, and Linton, to Upton Bishop ; and by Yatton and 
Kempley, to Much Marcle and Little Marcle ; and by Wall Hills 
Camp* and Ledbury, to Tewkesbury. The later Romans, for 
military and other purposes, probably made two deviation lines, 
one from Isoa to Venta (Chepstow), and across the Severn, at or 
about Aust Passage, or Oldbury Passage, into the Western 
Trackwayf ; and the other from Berry Hill, near Ross, across 
the Severn, to Gloucester, into the same Trackway (which ran 
from Exeter, the Caer-Isk of the Britons, and the Isca Dan- 
moniorum of the Romans, to Bristol, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, 
Worcester, &c). The Rycknield Street, having run along this 
Trackway from Aust Passage to Tewkesbury, appears there to 
have branched off to Evesham, Bidford, Edgbaston, &c; while 
the Trackway went on to Worcester, Droitwich, Over Arley, &c. 
The Rev. Thomas Leman's two maps, relative to the ancient 
British and Roman roads J, strongly favour this opinion, since, 
in the one map the ancient British line of the Rycknield Street 
is made to run from St. David's to Berry Hill, and from thence 
through Herefordshire, much to the west of Gloucester, to 
Alauna, Alcester ; and, in the other map, the Roman deviation 
line runs through Gloucester, from the pass of the Severn, by 
Aust or Oldbury Passage, and also from the pass of the Severn, 
near Gloucester §. Now, supposing, as is most natural, that the 
ancient British line of the Rycknield Street ran from Berry Hill, 
near Ross, through Herefordshire [|, to Ledbury, instead of 
crossing the river to Gloucester, its course from Ledbury to 
Tewkesbury was most probably the line of road detailed in p. 
277, &c, in which is the before-mentioned road, called the Ridge- 
way, running between Eastnor and the Herefordshire Beacon 
Camp, on Malvern Hill; and where also are met with the 

* See p. 289, as to a probable branch road of the Rycknield Street having 
gone from Wall Hills Camp to Frome Hill, and on to Worcester. 

+ See p. 290, &c. 

j See Brewer's " Beauties of England and Wales," Introduction, pp. 13 
and 133, edition 1818. 

§ The lines to these two passes are, however, given in dots, or doubtfully. 

|| See pp. 348, 349, in further proof of this. 



35a 

remarkable ancient British, Roman, and Saxon names of Wain 
Street, Keysend Street, the Pendoek Portway, in the Berrow ; 
Gadbury Banks, in Eldersfield ; Crookberrow, in Pendoek and 
the Berrow ; Sarn Hill, and Wood Street, in Bushley ; and The 
Mythe Tute, and Oldbury Gardens, near Tewkesbury. 

The following are in the line from Ross to Ledbury : — 

In LINTON, Herefordshire, near Upton Bishop, there is a 
place called Lower Oldbury. 

In Brockhampton*, Herefordshire, there are places called The 
Top of Walboro', Caplow Wood, Castle Hill, and The Yells. A 
little to the north of the village, the remains of what is said to 
be a Roman encampment, with a double trench, are met with f. 

In MUCH MARCLE, Herefordshire, there are Puckmoor's 
Orchard, Street's-end, Camp Field, Little Woburg, Upper and 
Lower Woburg, Camp Wood, Puerdon Field, Boyarden, Hasarden, 
Harold's Croft, Oldbury, Worrall's Meadow, Harwell Orchard, 
Harwell Field, and Wiggen Ash. 

In DYMOCK, Gloucestershire, there are Dorlow, Coldridge, 
Coldridge Hill, Old Hill, Berrow's and Little Berrow's Orchard, 
Berrow Meadow, Berrow Rough,BerrowHomestead,Berrow'sBank, 
Castle Meadow, Crewsfield, Round Hill, Puckmore, Puckmore's 
Hitch, Yesler's, Quabb's, Quabb Ground, Upper and Lower 
Quabb's, Portway Top, Shaice Field, Castle Tump, Middle and 
Near Castle Field, Hell Piece, Hell Bridge Meadow, Dotchley, 
Stanberrow, Stich, Sitchell's, Lao Croft, Ambersley, Far Am. 
bersley, Cob's Hole, Bow Field, Harding's, Pink's Field, Pinks 
Meadow, Harcomb, Harcomb Coppice, Knap Head, and Broms- 
berrow Heath. This place is supposed to derive its name from 
the Saxon, "dim," (dark), and " ac " (oak), and was formerly 
a place of some importance. There is a mount in this parish 
called Castle Tump, the site of the old castle which stood there. 

In PAUNTLEY, adjoining Dymock, there are Paveford 
Coppice, Paveford, Harwich Coppice, Harwich Field, Harwich 
Quabs, Great Harwich Coppice, and Harwich. 

* There also is " Brockhampton," near Bromyard. 
+ Broc, in Anglo-Saxon, signifies a brook. 



353 

An agricultural custom prevails at this place on Twelfth-day- 
eve, thus described in Hone's " Every-day Book," Vol. ii., p. 28, 
as follows : — 

" In the parish of Pauntley, a village on the border of the 
county of Gloucester, next Worcestershire, and in the neigh- 
bourhood, ' a custom, intended to prevent the smut in wheat, in 
some respects resembling the Scotch beltein*, prevails.' ' On 
the eve of Twelfth-day, all the servants of every farmer assemble 
together in one of the fields that has been sown with wheat. At 
the end of twelve lands, they make twelve fires in a row with 
straw; around one of which, made larger than the rest, they 
drink a cheerful glass of cider to their master's health, and success 
to the future harvest ; then, returning home, they feast on cakes 
made of carraways, &c, soaked in cider, which they claim as a 
reward for their past labours in sowing the grain f.'" 

In LEDBURY, in Herefordshire, there are places as stated 
in p. 275. 

The preceding notices appear to warrant the inference that the 
Rycknield Street, or Ridgeway, consisted of a single line, from 
St. David's, for several miles eastward, and afterwards formed 
three great links before it reached Edgbaston, near Birmingham ; 
that the first link commenced at Isca (Caerleon), and terminated 
at Tewkesbury! ; the second, at Tewkesbury, and terminated at 
Alcester ; and the third, at Alcester, and terminated at Edgbaston. 
This agrees with the principles laid down in p. 237, respecting 
ancient British roads' ; and explains the reason of such parallel 
lines, namely, that the one was ancient British, and the other 
Roman. 

* See Chaddesley Corbett, p. 124, and Old Storage, pp. 191, 192. 
+ " Rudge's ' Gloucester.'" 

J The line from Berry Hill, near Ross, to Gloucester, was merely a cut 
across the first link. 



A A 



354 



Star ff. 



FOSS WAY. 

As the Foss Way passes through Blockley, Shipston-on-Stour, 
and Tredington, which are detached portions of Worcestershire, 
I have collected the following names which occur in those places 
and their vicinity. 

CODESTON, Cotesdon, or Cutsdean, is a hamlet of the parish 
of Bredon, Co. Worcester. In the Anglo-Saxon times there were 
places called the Greystone, and Radborough, on the boundaries 
of Codeston*. 

The parish of BLOC KEY was anciently called Blockelet and 
Blockel. In " Domesday Book," it is written Blockelei. It is 
said that urns and other Roman remains have been found on 
Moor Hill. In the " Companion to Greenwood's Map of Wor- 
cestershire," published in 1822, it is stated that the palace of the 
bishop formerly stood in Blockley, and that " from the many relics 
of antiquity found in the vicinity, it is supposed to have been a 
Roman station." 

In the hamlet of Blockley there are places called Old Oven, 
Round Hill, and Dove Dale. 

In the hamlet of Aston or Eston, in Blockley, there are Bea- 
wells, Hob's Hole, Hobb's Hole Coppice, Tokenham, Elim Hale, 
Big and Little Hale, and Foss Way. In " Domesday Book," the 
place is called Aston. 

* See Nash, Vol. ii., App., p. 45, and Heming's " Cartulary," p. 348. Also 
see Chap. IV., relative to " Hoar Stones," and the above-mentioned " Grey- 
Stone ;" likewise p. 86, as to the neighbouring camps at Bourton-on-the-Hill, 
Co. Gloucester. 



355 

In Dome, a hamlet in Blockley, there is a piece called the 
Foss Way Ground. British and Boman relics have been found 
here, as stated in p. 87. 

In NORTHWICK there is a place called Ridegway. The 
name is spelled Norwyke in " Domesday Book." In Dr. Thomas's 
" Survey of Worcester Cathedral," &c, the Foss Way is thus 
incidentally mentioned : — Ethelbald " by the style of the King of 
the South Angles, gave to Bishop Wilfrithe eight cassates of land 
at Baecces horan*, now called Battesford, bounded by Bourton Hill 
to the south, by the Fosse, or King's Highway, to the east, and 
by rivulets to the north."- — A. p. 12. 

ICOMBE, otherwise Iccancumb, Ikecumbe, or Ickham, was a 
detached parish of Worcestershire, but has been annexed to 
Gloucestershire by the Reform Bill. There is a camp there f. 

DAYLESFORD, Dalesford, or Dailsford, is a detached parish 
of Worcestershire. It was anciently called Deiglesford ; and in 
" Domesday Book" it is written Eilesford. 

In EVENLOAD, Emload, or Emlade, a detached parish of 
Worcestershire, there is a place called Dark's Folly. The name of 
this parish, in King Edgar's Charter, is written Eowenland, but 
sometimes, and more correctly, it is written Eunilade and Eum- 
lade. In " Domesday Book," it it is spelled Eunilade, and is 
therein described as appertaining to the Church of Worcester. 
In Heming's " Cartulary" there is a Charter of King Offa, dated 
784, granting lands in Eowengelade. The Four Shire Stone 
stands partly in this parish. Antiquities have been found near 
here, and in the Barrow Ground. See pp. 85, 86. 

In the parish of CHASTLETON or Chastledon, Co. Oxford (in 
which the Four Shire Stone also partly stands), there are places 
called Stup Hill, Harcomb, Barrow Ground, and Wyton's Har- 
comb. " The parish is memorable as the scene of a sanguinary 
conflict in 1016, between Edmund Ironside and Canute, when 
the latter was defeated with great slaughter {." 

* Heming's " Cartulary," pp. 34, 376. 

+ Vide p. 85. 

t Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary." 



356 

On the border of the parish of TIDMINGTON, Tidminton, or 
Tuddlminton, Co. Worcester, there was, in the time of the 
Anglo-Saxons, a place called Hor-pit*. This parish was anciently 
called Tidelminton, and is so described in " Domesday Book ;" 
and is supposed to have been one of the Anglo-Saxon marks f. 

In the parish of STRETTON-on-the-Foss, Co. Warwick, there 
are places called Little Roughborough, Great Roughborough, 
Roughborough Hill, Roughborough Meadow, and Folly Meadow. 

In the parish of SHIPSTON-on-Stour, Co. Worcester, there 
are, — Gerrard's Leys, Woad-down, and First, Second, and Far 
Woad-down. The name of Shipston probably means " the town 
of sheep." In Heming's " Cartulary," p. 347, and in Nash's 
" History," Vol. ii., App., p. 44, it is stated, that there were 
places in the Anglo-Saxon times, on the boundaries of Shipston, 
called the Salt Pit, at Whadden and Tordeland. 

In the hamlet of WILLINGTON, in Barcheston, Co. War- 
wick, there are places called Hob's Hole, and Little Hob's Hole. 

In the parish of TREDINGTON, anciently TredinctunJ 
(which includes the hamlets of Blackwall or Blackwell, and 
Darlingscott), there are, — Hawkestone Butts, Banbury's Ground, 
Far and Further Banbury's Ground, The Oven, Banbro' Meadow, 
Robbin's Ground, Great Hobbis's Meadow, and Lower Hobb's 
Meadow. — (See Chap. IV., relative to " Hoar Stone" there.) 
Darlingscott is supposed to have been one of the Anglo-Saxon 
marks §. 

In NEWBOLD there are, Catbrain, Hell Kitchen, and Tatton 
Hedge. 

In the hamlet of Armscott, in Newbold, there are a great 
many pieces of land described as being in the Upper Fossway 
Furlong, and also others as being in the Lower Fossway Furlong, 
and others as being in Holigo Furlong. 

In ALDERMINSTER, formerly called Aldermaston, or 

* See Chap. IV., also Heming's " Cartulary," Vol. ii., p. 348 ; and " Codex 
Dip.," No. 614. 

+ See p. 229. 

+ See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 620, 676. 

§ See p. 229. 



357 

Aldermanston, there are places called Hoberton, Upthrop 
Meadow, Wolland, Great Pike, Little Pike, and Wellod Leys. 

We may here remark that, as in many instances some of the 
principal camps are upon the very borders of counties (such as 
the Herefordshire Beacon Camp, and Kemerton Camp), it seems 
probable that they were used as land-marks in the division of the 
counties, as some also were in the division of parishes, 



358 



tf&ajtor I. 
GENEEAL OBSEKYATIONS 

RELATIVE TO THE NAMES WICK, WICH, AND 
WICCIA. 

Camden says, the province called Wiccia, of which Wor- 
cestershire formed a part*, seems to have been " derived from 
the salt pits which, in the old English language, are called 
Wiches." 

Dr. Nash says, in his account of Droitwichf, " Wich is sup- 
posed by some, though probably without reason, to be derived 
from ' Vic,' ' Vicus,' a street or village. Others derive it from the 
Saxon word * Wic,' signifying either a station, mansion, place of 
security, or secure habitation, from the verb ' Wician' to inhabit ; 
or a sanctuary, brine spring, salt pit, from ' Wi,' or ' Wye ' Holy. 
The northern nations attributed great sacredness to waters im- 
pregnated with salt];. I cannot find that ' Wic,' or ' Wich,' 
signifies salt spring in its primitive sense." 

In a note relative to the words " Wi," or " Wye," Nash says, 
" Perhaps the word ' Wice,' in English, witch, came from the same 
root, and signified originally, ' sacro sancta mulier, diis devota,' 
a druidess. ' Sagus' and ' Saga' of the Latins, were at first 
terms of honour. Wiccungdom is by Somner rendered Magia. 
Wiccingaemere was anciently the name of Wigmore, in Here- 
fordshire, a scene not improper for the display of druidical art." 
The Doctor, in his account of the parish of Wichenford, 
Vol. ii., p. 457, says, — " From whence comes the word Wic, or 

* See Vol. ii., p. 469. It included Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and 
part of Warwickshire. 
+ See Vol. i., p. 295. 
% Tacit. " Ann.," Lib. xiii- ; also see Droitwich, pp. 310, 311. 



359 

Wich ? Dr. Thomas thinks from the windings of the river ; 
but this seems too general a description : besides, no river runs 
near Wichenford. Baxter*, in his ' Glossarium Antiq. Britan.,' 
thinks that Iceni, Huiccii, Wiccii, Vigantes, (not Jugantes, as 
falsely printed in Tacitus), all meant stout or valiant men." 

In describing the parish of Wickhamford, anciently Wicque, 
he further states (Vol. ii., p. 61), that "it is watered by a little 
brook, shallow in some places, from whence its modern name is 
derived;" but this derivation can only apply to the suffix to the 
name. This place is called Wiquene in " Domesday Book," and 
Wikewane in the charter of the two kings, Kenred and Offa. 

In Vol. ii., App., p. 109, he says, " When the Britons were 
driven over the Severn by the conquering Saxons, Worcester was 
a part of the Mercian kingdom, and possessed by the Wiccii, who, 
seating themselves on the turnings and windings of the pleasant 
rivers Avon and Severn, took their names from thence, and by 
them was this city founded f, called Wichirne at first, or Wic ; 
for the hills encompass it from the east to the Severn, and come 
down so close upon it at its south gate, that it seemeth to stand 
in a corner under the hills. Hence, the old Saxon name, Wich- 
irne, Wigurne, Wegurne, Weogerne, Wigorna, Weogorna ; and, 
in Latin, 'Wigorna et VigorniaJ.' And, afterwards, when it 
was fortified against the incursions of the Britons, and a castle 
erected where the river was most fordable, it was then called 
Wygerne-ceastre, Weogerne-ceastre, Wigor-ceastre, Wyogorna- 
ceastre, Wigorn-ceastre', Wygn-ceastre, Wire-castre, Wear-cestre, 

Weore-ceastre, Wor-cester The castle was built at the 

south end, close to the river, where it is for a great way fordable ; 
and a speculum §, or high mount, was raised up with the earth 
taken out of the river." 

* See Baxter, " Ad voces Braniiogenium et Iceni." 

f See before, p. 35, where it is contended that it was a town in both the 
Roman and ancient British time. 

J Heming's " Cartulary," p. 6 ; and 19 MS., Thomas. 

§ See pp. 17, 20, as to the probability of the Castle Hill having been partly 
thrown up in the Roman time, although the castle itself may have been built 
by the Saxons, or Normans. 



360 

The following is a summary of places called by the name of 
Wick or Wich in this county, together with a particular descrip- 
tion of their geographical features. 

Western Side of the County. 

KNIGHTWICK is a parish which contains much high ridgy 
ground, near the River Teme *. 

ALFRICK, Alferwyke, Afurwike, or Alfredeswic, is a hamlet 
in Suckley parish, containing very high ridgy ground, principally 
on the borders of Leigh Brook, by Old Storage, or Storridge, and 
along the east side of Suckley Hillf. 

POWICKj, or Powycke in " Domesday," (Poiwic,) is a parish 
containing much high ridgy land, near the banks of the Severn 
and Teme. A road called the Ridgeway § also passes through it. 

Lower and Upper Wick, Wic, Wyken, or Wyke Episcopi, 
Rushwick||, or Rushwyke, and Henwick, Hinewick, or Hynewyk, 
contain considerable ridges, either upon the Severn or the Teme, 
and lie on the western side of the Severn, in the parish of St. 
John, in Bedwardine IT, except Henwick, or Hynewick, (which 
is in St. Clement's parish, and Hallow). They run in almost a 
continuous line from Powick to Worcester. 

Hard wick, or Wyke **, is a manor contained partly in St. Johns 
parish, and partly in the neighbouring places. 

KENSWICK, a chapelry, in Wichenford parish, lies north- 
west of Henwick, on Laughern Brook. 

Wichenford ff lies north of Kenswick. There is a place called 
the Ridges J J, by Laughern Brook, between Kenswick, Wichenford, 

* There is a bridge at the ford there, called Knightsford Bridge, 
f See pp. 190, 248, &c. 

I See p. 73, concerning Roman relics found there. 
§ See pp. 287, 288. 

|| In Nash, Vol. ii., p. 308, it is stated that Rushwyke is a modern name. 
% See p. 288, concerning a piece of ground called the Ridgeway Meado w 
in this parish. 

** Called Wiche in " Domesday Book." See Nash, supra. 

++ See p. 149, 150, as to Roman coins found there. 

X\ The Ordnance Map calls it the Kedges and Kedges Copse. 



361 

and Ridge-end. Ridge-end Copse, and Ockeridge Wood lie on 
the north side of Wichenford*. 

Southern Side of the County. 
Bredon's Hardwick, in Bredon parish, south of Bredon Hill. 

Eastern Side of the County. 

Wickhamford. — For this parish see p. 336. 

WICK, Wyke, or Wycke Waryn, is a ridge on the border of 
the Avon, near Pershore. 

LENCH WYKE is a ridge on the border of the Avon, near 
Evesham. 

North Side of the County. 

NORTHWICK lies on the ridge on the east side of the 
Severn, near Worcester. 

DROITWICHf, or Wych, lies on the sides and bottom of the 
ridgy banks of the river Sal warp. 

WICHBOLD, or Wicelbold,} is a manor in Doderhill, by 
Droitwich, and lies on the banks of the Salwarp. 

CHADDLEWICK, Chadelewick, or Chadwick, and Williug- 
wicke, lie on the north-west side of Bromsgrove Lickey. 

WICHBURY§ Hill is in Hagley parish. 

WYTCHALLH lies between Northfield and Edgbaston. 

From a general review of the above-mentioned places, we are 
inclined to think that the name Wick, or Wich, is derived 

* Nash, in Vol. ii., p. 458, says, " Mr. Habingdon thinks that Wyke, near 
Worcester, and Wichenford, were formerly joined together ; indeed, ' Domes- 
day' and several other records seem to confirm this conjectnre. — Tab. ii., 
Col. b." Perhaps it was called Wichenford from its being detached from the 
rest of Wyke by Laughem Brook." 

+ See pp. 98, &c, 310, &c. 

I See p. 311. 

§ See p. 136, as to its antiquities. 

|| See p. 332. 



either from the Saxon word ' Wic', signifying a station, mansion, 
place of security, or secure habitation, from Wician, to inhabit ; 
or from the Latin, ' Vic,' ' Vicus,' a street or village*." We 
find that almost all the above-mentioned places are connected 
with high ridges of ground f, or dorsal elevations, which in 
ancient times would be considered as the most advantageous and 
protected places for residence j. 

* See pp. 310, 347, 358. 

+ It is possible that some few places in this kingdom were named Wick or 
Wicli in comparatively modern times (see Kushwyke, p. 360), without any 
regard to the configuration of the ground ; but it is worthy of remark, that 
almost all the above-mentioned places not only occur on ridges, but are in or 
near the lines, or supposed lines, of the ancient Eidgeways. — See Kycknield 
Street. 

I ' Ymb Wicigean' means, to encamp about. ' Wicing,' or ' Wiceng,' means 
a pirate, — See " Saxon Chron.," 921 and 879. 



q^CV^O 



•363 



(Clfajte II. 



BAMBUKY STONE ON BEEDON HILL, AND 
AMBEOSLE PETILE GENEBALLY. 

In the first edition of this work, I cursorily referred to a re- 
markable stone on the border of Kemerton Camp, otherwise 
Banbury or Bambury Camp, on Bredon Hill, close by the boun- 
dary line between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The fol- 
lowing additional observations on this stone may not be thought 
unworthy of notice. 

It stands within about forty yards of the south-west end of the 
inner vallum or trench of the camp, and near a tower or prospect 
house, which was built in modern times upon the summit of the 
hill. It is situated a little within the entrance of an oblong basin 
or amphitheatre, near the western focus of the ellipse, and is about 
twenty yards in circumference, four yards high, and nearly flat at 
the top. The basin resembles a dry dock, with its entrance upon 
the verge of the precipice of the hill, and is about two hundred 
yards in circumference. The stone, at several miles distance, 
looks something like the hull of a ship coming out of dock. I 
have no doubt that this basin is artificial, and that the earth 
and stones excavated were applied towards forming the inner 
agger of the camp, which is high and wide, and would take 
more materials in the making than could be obtained out of 
the vallum* or trench. The stone is a mass of inferior oolite, 

* There are also traces of very considerable excavations, in the ground be- 
tween the outer and inner vallum, at the south-east corner ; the materials 
from which were no doubt used for the above-mentioned purpose. 



364 

the same as the rest of the hill, and no doubt was denuded upon 
the basin being dug, and most probably was preserved for an altar 
stone. At the distance of about six yards before it, westward, 
nearer the precipice, there is another stone about eleven yards in 
circumference, and two yards above the surface ; and about six- 
teen yards further westward, at the precipice, is a third stone, 
about ten yards in circumference, and two yards high. The 
former of these two stones was probably disturbed at the time of 
the excavation, as the stratification is nearly vertical, and the 
other either appears to have been moved to the very edge of the 
precipice (down which it seems on the point of rolling into Wor- 
cestershire), or the earth has, in the course of ages, fallen away 
from before it down the precipice, and left it upon the brink*. 
There is also another stone, behind and to the east of the Bam- 
bury stone, which measures about eight yards in circumference. 
All these stones are nearly in a line with each other, and stand 
in an easterly and westerly direction ; the one An the brink, 
stands on or near to the site of the ancient granary f. 

Laird, in his " Topographical and Historical Description of 
Worcestershire!," describing this stone, says, "Near the Prospect 
House, is Bramsbury Stone, an immense mass of rock, but of 
which there is no traditionary account ; and which is, most likely, 
merely a natural production, without any reference to ancient 
events." 

In Derham's " Physico-Theology" the camp is called Bems- 
bury Camp§. 

In Nash's plan of the camp it is called Bembury Stone, and 
in the plan in the second edition of Gough's " Camden," Bunbury 
stone ; but neither of those authors take any further notice of it. 
In Greenwood's map, dated 1820 and 1821, it is called Bambury 
Stone, and in the Ordnance Map Banbury Stone. 

* See p. 78, relative to the land-slips at the part in question. 

+ See pp. 78, 79, 80. 

{ See p. 364. 

§ Vide p. 80 of this work. 



365 

Dr. Nash, in his plan (here given), only noticed the principal 
stone, and placed it on the brink of the precipice. Neither has 




22 -44 66 88 HO 



SCALE OF 220 YARDS. 



he represented the hollow basin in which the stone stands. 
Perhaps, therefore, the woodcut here 
set forth, which was drawn after a per- 
sonal inspection in 1841, will give a 
more clear idea of the matter. 

With respect to the word Bambury, 
it may be observed that not only do the 
peasantry frequently substitute one con- 
sonant for another at the commence- 
ment of a word, but that it is a vulgarism 
of the county to super-add a consonant 
to words commencing with a vowel ; 
thus Bambury might easily be the same 
as Ambury. 
Dr. Nash* says, " The common people of this county frequently 

add the leter N to words that begin with a vowel ; thus they say 




Vol. ii. p. 167. 



366 

nuncle for uncle, nant for aunt, a narrow for an arrow, a nay 
word is an aye word ; a newt is an eft or small lizard, nawl for 
awl, a noddy for an oddy or oddity ; thus Nash of the Noke *, 
for Ash of the Oak." 

The vulgar of all parts of England frequently add the letter H 
to words that begin with a vowel ; as, houats for oats, a howl for an 
owl, a hox for an ox, a hounce for an ounce, &c, while in some 
cases they substitute a vowel for a consonant ; as, yor for hair, yat 
for gate, &c. 

There is a field called Ambers, in Castle Morton ; Ambury 
Hill, in Old Swinford ; Omber's Hill, in Leigh f ; Omberland, on 
the boundaries of Cudleyt, in Spetchley ; Hambery Piece, Ham- 
bury Meadow, and Big Hambery, in the parish of Bromsgrove ; 
and Banbury's Ground, and Banbro' Meadow, in Tredington. 
There also is a hundred, parish, and town, called Banbury § ; and 
a parish and township, called Ambrosden, in Oxfordshire ; and 
a camp, called Croft Ambrey||, in Herefordshire, which is of an 
elliptical form, with double ditch and rampart. Also places called 
Amberley and Bransbury, in the latter county ; a parish called 
Amberley, in Sussex ; Ambersley and Far Ambersley, in Dy- 
mock, Co. Gloucester ; an intrenched camp, at Wimbledon, Co. 
Surrey, called BensburylT ; and in Waltham, in Essex, just with- 
out Copt Hall Park, there "is an oval camp called Ambresbury 
Banks, which is probably ancient British**." There is a parish 
called Humbeston, in Lincolnshire ; Humberstone Priory, a ruin, 
in Pembrokeshire ; and at Stanfield, in Yorkshire, there are a 



* There are several places called by the name of Noke, such as Long Noke, 
in Northfield, &c. 

+ See " Folk-Lore." 

I See Heming's " Cartulary," p. 358 ; and " Nash," Vol. ii., App., p. 55. 

§ Called by the Saxons, Banesbyrig. Some ancient British gold coins were 
found near Banbury." See " Gentleman's Magazine," for July, 1843, p. 39. 

|| See the Ordnance Map. The parish is called Crofta, in " Domesday 
Book." It lies in the hundred of Wolphy. 

^[ See " Camden," also the " Archaeologia," Vol. xxi., No. 2, p. 518, &c. 

** See Gough's " Camden," Vol. ii., p. 127, second edition, 1806. Also 
Gadbury Banks, pp. 68, 69. 



367 

number of druidical stones called Humberds*. " Domesday 
Book" mentions Ambreforde, in Yorkshire ; Ambrelie, in Sussex ; 
Ambresberie, in Hants and Wilts ; Ambresb'ise, in Wilts f ; Am- 
bresdone, in Oxfordshire ; Ambretone and Ambritone, Bucking- 
hamshire ; Amburlege, in Herefordshire ; and Hambertune, in 
Huntingdonshire J. 

The Rev. T. Lewis, of Yatton Court, near Leominster, in 
answer to some inquiries of mine, states that the intrench- 
ments at Croft Ambrey§, in Herefordshire, are very deep and 
interesting; and that there is one, about a mile from it, 
which he considers to be Roman, but which he has never 
seen noticed in any work. 

That camp is noticed in Gough's " Camden ||," thus, " In the 
park is a large camp, double-ditched, called the Ambrey ; a name 
common to other earth-works, as in Essex and Hants; from 
whence is an extensive prospect. To this is opposed a camp, 
called the Warren, on Wapley Hill, between Eywood and 
Wigmore. At Avernestre, south-west of it, is a smaller square 
camp." 

Before proceeding further, I must here observe, it is possible 
that some of the above-mentioned names, commencing with B, 
may be derived from the word " beam," which, in Anglo- Saxon, 

* Also Hawkstones, Bridestones, &c. See Gough's " Camden" Vol. iii., 
p. 275, second edition, 1806 ; and Vol. ii., p. 506. There is Hawkesstone 
Butts, in Tredington, Co. Worcester. 

+ Amesbury, or Ambresbury, in Wilts, is written Ambresbyrig, and Arnbres- 
burh, in Anglo-Saxon charters. See " Codex Dip.," Nos. 314, 361, 361 App., 
Vol. iii., 1058, 1067 ; and a place called Hambres Buruh is mentioned in the 
" Charter," No. 572. 

I There is a house called Almery, or Ambry Court, near the town of Per- 
shore ; but this name is derived from Almonry, Almonarium, a place where alms 
were distributed. See Nash, Vol. i., p. 409. Almery, or Ambry, also means 
a moveable receptacle for household stuff. See the " Archaeological Institute 
Journal," Vol. v., p. 319. 

§ I am informed that, in some old documents, the name Ambrey is 
applied to a place of security for soldiers ; but this no doubt is in a sub- 
ordinate sense. 

|| Vol. iii., p. 84. 



368 

implies a woody situation* ; while others, commencing with H, 
may come from the Anglo-Saxon, " ham," home ; " vicus," or 
village. In such instances, we must endeavour, from the nature 
of the places themselves, to ascertain which is the correct 
etymology of the name. 

In the parish of Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, there is a 
large upland common, called Amberley; while near to it is a 
remarkable intrenchment, supposed to be ancient British, nearly 
three miles in circumference. Adjoining the site of this camp, 
there are a great number of small tumuli, supposed to be barrows. 
On the northern side, just below Amberley Church, are three 
rather large erect stones, two of them being close together, and 
the other about a hundred yards distant : these may have been 
amber-stones ; and near the southern side of the camp there was 
till lately a very large erect stone, called " Tingle Stone," 
situate near " Hure Broke ;" while, not far from the latter, there 
now are two other erect stones, called Long Stones f, or Ragged 
Stones (oolitic formation). The adjoining vale is called Woeful 
Dane's Bottom. 

This camp was kindly shown to me by Edward Dalton, Esq., 
D.C.L. and F.S A., of Dunkirk House, near Nailsworth, Glouces- 
tershire. It lies within about two miles of Woodchester, where 
very extensive Roman pavements, &c, have been found, the par- 
ticulars of which were published in 1797, by Lyson. There is a 
noble kind of amphitheatre or indent on the side of the high 
ridge opposite where the above-mentioned relics were found, and 
which is probably partly natural, and partly artificial. 

There is a parish called Humberston j (most probably a cor- 
ruption of Amberstone), in the county of Leicester, wherein is a 
stone called the Hols tone, Hoston, or Hostin, situate in Hum- 
berstone Field. This is noticed by Nichols, in his " History of 
Leicestershire § ; and also by Hamper, in his work on Hoar-stones. 
In order to learn all the particulars I could, I wrote to the late 

* See Gough's " Camden," Vol. L, p. 160. 

f Perhaps identical with what are called " Druidical obelisks." 

j There is also a parish called Humberston, in the county of Lincoln. 

§ Vol. iii., Part 2, p. 981, note 2. 



369 

John Stockdale Hardy, Esq., of Leicester, who kindly obtained 
for me the following communication, addressed to him from the 
Rev. John Dudley, rector 0/ Humberston, upon the subject : — 

"Sileby, 3rd May, 1841. 

" In the lordship of Humberston, on the estate of Mr. 
Pochin, of Barkby, and about a mile N.W. of the parish church, 
there is a stone which is interesting from the traditions in the 
village concerning it. These traditions, though now almost lost, 
relate that fairies dwell in and near to it ; that any injury done 
to it was sure to be followed by misfortune to the injurer, for 
that it was holy. This supposed sanctity is intimated by the 
name (Hostone) of the plot of ground where it is located. 
According to Borlase (" History of Cornwall"), fairies are believed 
to attend stones of undoubted holiness in that county. 

" The stone is of the granite, or rather syenite rocks of 
Mountsorrel, about six miles distant, and seems to be one of the 
blocks which geologists term erratic blocks, many of w T hich have 
been found in the lordship of Humberston, as also in the inter- 
vening distances between Humberston and Mountsorrel. This 
stone appears to be larger than any others now known. At 
present it is covered over by the turf of the field ; but about 
a hundred years ago it stood in a surrounding hollow basin*, 
which the then owner of the land filled up, and broke off frag- 
ments from the stone, so that the plough might pass over it. 
The threat against injuries of the stone was certainly fulfilled in 
this instance ; for the man, though born heir to a good yeoman's 
estate, became a vagabond, and died in the parish workhouse. 

" That this stone was one of those called, in Cornwall, Logan- 
stones, seems to be almost certain, from the hollow or sunken 
area in which it is said to have stood. There is no tradition 
to that purport ; but, according to the Cornish historian (B. 3, 
C. 4), ' Logan, in the Guidhelian British, signifies a pit, or 
hollow of the hand ; and in such hollows this moving stone is 
often found.' 

* This corresponds with what is said in p. 363, relative to the Banbury 
Stone, on Bredon Hill. 

B B 



370 

" It appears, from the same author that the Logan-stone was 
known in some instances by the name of Men-amber, or the 
Amber-stone. Bryant, in his " Mythology," Vol. iv., p. 201, 
8vo. shows that sacred stones, especially oscillating or rocking- 
stones, have been known by this name, in almost all parts of the 
world, and from the earliest antiquity that they were always held to 
be sacred, and that the town of Amesbury (anciently Ambresbury), 
near Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, took its name from the 
Logan- or Amber-stones in its vicinity. There can be little doubt 
but that the village near which this stone still remains, in like 
manner obtained its name, Humbers-ton, or the town of the 
Amber, or Holy-stone. 

" Adjacent to the spot in which the stone now lies, is a vale or 
plot of land called Hell Hole. No appearance of this plot 
invites the name, which must have been given for some special 
reason. Borlase mentions a sacred stone, in Cornwall, called 
Tolmen, or Hole-stone. This stone is of great size, and rests 
upon the points of two others. The historian observes 
that many druidical mysteries w r ere practised at stones so 
placed, and that persons passing under them, and through the 
opening between the supporting stones, were purified from every 
sin. Whether the name of Hell may have been given, in 
Christian times, to any passage under this Humberston stone, to 
excite an abhorrence of druidic rites, to which the people of our 
island were from custom long attached; or whether the word 
Hell may have been the Welsh or Celtic word hel, to assemble, 
may not be easily determined. It rather seems, however, that 
the latter origin of the name may be most probable, and that 
this vale was the place in which the people assembled to celebrate 
or witness the rites performed, or to worship the stone deity on 
the rising ground above." 

In addition to the above, it may be stated that Throsby, in his 
supplementary volume to the " Leicestershire Views " (published 
in 1790), states that the lordship of Humberston was inclosed in 
1789, and gives a quotation from Nichols's " Leicestershire," 
that " to the north-west of the village, in a part of the field 

* But see the note, p. 372. 



371 

at present known by the name of Hoston, it is said a religious 
house or nunnery was situated," &c. ; and that, " near the same 
place is a stone, which confirms the generally-received opinion of 
naturalists concerning the growth of those bodies ; for, notwith- 
standing great pains have been taken by a late proprietor of the 
land to keep it below the surface, it defeats his efforts, and rises 
gradually. It is remarkable as being the only stone of the same 
kind nearer than Charnwood Forest, which is about eight or 
nine miles distant, and is probably the peak of a vast bed of 
rock-stone, which may lie beneath the intermediate country." 
In June, 1843, I visited the spot, and a ploughman, who had 
worked for many years upon the farm, pointed out this Amber- 
stone, or Hoston to me. It is vulgarly called Hostin. I found 
it nearly covered with earth and standing corn. The ground 
around it is slightly conical, arising no doubt from the occasional 
efforts of the agriculturists to keep it covered. The gradual 
washing away by the rain of the mound of earth, has, doubtless, 
given birth to the popular idea of the rising of the stone. 

But we must return to Worcestershire. 

With respect to Ombersley, it is observable that, in 706, 
Ethel ward*, son of Oshere, king of the Wiccians, with the 
consent of Cenred, king of the Mercians, gave, by charter, to 
Bishop Egwin, twelve cassates of land at Ambreslege, with 
the appurtenances, especially two wears, one where Ombreswelle f 
falls into the Severn \. It is called Ambresleia, in the charter 
of Bishop Egwin § (who, in 714, gave the same lands to the 
Abbey of Evesham);, Ombersetena gemaere, in the charters 
numbered 627 and 1366, in the " Codex Dip.;" and Ambreslege, 
in " Domesday Book." Dr. Nash, in Vol. ii. of his " History," 
p. 217, says : — " Among the records at Hagley, mention is made 

* " Codex Dip.," Vol. i., No. 56, and 56 App., Vol. iii. 

+ See p. 366, concerning Omber's Hill, in Leigh and Omberland, on the 
boundary of Cudley. 

X Also see Nash, Vol. ii., p. 216 ; and " Codex Dip.," Vol. i., No. 56, and 
56 App., Vol. iii., as to Ombresuuel. 

§ " Codex Dip.," Vol. i., No. 64. 



372 

of Mauritius de Ambersloy, who held Brome, in the county of 
Stafford, in the reigns of Richard I. and John." It is also called 
Ambresley, in the Court Rolls of the manor, temp. 14th 
Henry VII. 

Having proceeded thus far in our account of places compounded 
with Amber or Omber, we shall quote a few authorities concern- 
ing the probable etymology of the prefix. 

In Bryant's " Ancient Mythology*," the following passage oc- 
curs : — "I have mentioned that they (the ancients) showed a 
reverential regard to fragments of rock which were particularly 
uncouth and horrid ; and this practice seems to have prevailed in 
many other countries. It was usual, with much labour, to place 
one vast stone upon another for a religious memorial. The stones 
thus placed, they oftentimes poized so equably, that they were 
affected with the least external force, — nay, a breath of wind 
would sometimes make them vibrate. We have many instances 
of this nature in our own country, and they are to be found in 
other parts of the world ; and, wherever they occur, we may 
esteem them of the highest antiquity. All such works we gene- 
rally refer to the Celts and to the Druids, under the sanction of 
which names we shelter ourselves whenever we are ignorant and 
bewildered. But they were the operations of a very remote age ; 
probably before the time when the Druids, or Celtse, were first 
known. I question whether there be in the world a monument 
which is much prior to the celebrated Stonehengef. There is 
reason to think that it was erected by a foreign colony, one of 
the first which came into the island. There is extant, at this day, 
one of those rocking stones, of which I have been speaking above J. 
The ancients distinguished stones, erected with a religious view, 
by the name of Amber, by which was signified anything solar and 
divine. The Grecians called them JJerpat A/JLJ3pocnac (Petrae 
Ambrosise); and there are representations of such upon coins. 

* Vol. iii., pp. 532, 538. 

+ This is thought, by some writers, to be the Bound Temple of the Sun, 
described by Diodorus Sicidus. 

I If Mr. Bryant, by this, meant one of the imposts, i. e., a transverse stone 
on two upright ones, it does not appear strictly to belong to the class of Logan 
stones. 



373 

Horapollo speaks of a sacred book in Egypt, styled Ambres, 
which was so called from its sanctity, being a medicinal book of 
Hermes, and entrusted solely to the care of the sacred scribes. 
Stonehenge is composed of these amber stones ; hence the next 
town is denominated Ambrosbury*, not from a Roman Ambro- 
sius, for no such person existed, but from Ambrosias Petrse, in 
whose vicinity it stands." 

Bryant likewise remarks, that " among the many tribes of the 
Amonians which went abroad, were to be found people who 
were styled Anakim, and were descended from the sons of Anac ; 
so that this history, though carried to a great excess, was pro- 
bably founded in truth. They were particularly famous for 
architecture, which they introduced into Greece, as we are told 
by Herodotus ; and in all parts whither they came, they erected 
noble structures, which were remarkable for their height and 
beauty, and were often dedicated to the chief deity, the sun, 
under the name of Elorus and Pelorus. People were so struck 
with their grandeur, that they called every thing great and stu- 
pendous Pelorian ; and when they described the Cyclopians as a 
lofty, towering race, they came at last to borrow their ideas of this 
people from the towers to which they alluded." — " They were 
the same family as the Cadmians and Phcenices, and as the 
Hivites, or Ophites, who came from Egypt, and settled near 
Libanus and Baal Hermon, upon the confines of Canaan. They 
worshipped the sun under the symbol of a serpent ; hence they 
were styled, in different parts where they in time settled, Euro- 
pians, Oropians, Anopians, Inopians, Asopians, Elopians; all 
which names relate to, the worship of the Pytho Ops, or Opis." 

Bowles, in his " Hermes Britannicusf," says, — " Respecting 
the Phoenicians being the founders of the Druidical discipline in 
Britain, one fact weighs with me more than a thousand argu- 
ments. I allude to the Tyrian coin {, on which appear the oak 

* See Stukeley's " Stonehenge," pp. 49, 50. 

+ Published 1828, p. 78. 

I It has been conjectured that this coin belonged to Cadez, or Gades, which 
is of Phoenician origin. See " Gentleman's Magazine," February 1829 x 
pp. 140, 141, 



374 

tree, the sacred fire, the two stone pillars of Hercules (Thoth), and 
the singular legend, Tyr. Col.* (Colony of Tyrians), and the still 
more remarkable words under the erect stones, AMBPOZIE 
IIETPE (Ambrosiae Petrae), the anointed rocks f. Let the 
reader remember the monkish tradition of Ambrosius ; the exact 
likeness of these pillars, on this coin, to the stones at Stonehenge, 
the Ambrosiae Petrae; and if he does not think the origin of 
Ambrosebury, or Amesbury, was derived from the Ambrosiae 
Petrae, or anointed stones of the Tyrian colonists, he will think 
the coincidence most remarkable J." 

The Eev. Mr. Duke, in his work on the " Druidical Temples 
of Wiltshire §," remarks, that " Stukeley, when speaking of the 
camp situate between Stonehenge and Ambresbury, and which, 
though without much reason, has been attributed to Vespasian, 
says, ' I apprehend that Stonehenge was originally called the 
Ambres; from thence this camp was called Ambresburgh, and 
thence the name of the town underneath.' Stukeley then quotes 
from Camden, citing the instance of a vast stone near Penzance, 
in Cornwall, called Main Ambre, which was destroyed by the 
soldiery in the days of Cromwell. It was a patriarchial custom 
to anoint stones or temples, dedicated to divine worship, with 
sweet-scented oil or ambrosia, the meaning of which word is well 
illustrated by Baxter, in his ' Glossarium Antiquitatum Koman- 
arum.' The word signifies sweet-scented oil, ' oleum rhodinum' 
(oil of roses), a very ancient perfume ; and from hence Stukeley 
justly says, that ' main ambres, petrae ambrosiae, signify the stones 
anointed with holy oil, consecrated ; or, in a general sense, a tem- 
ple, altar, or place of worship.' 

" Stukeley exhibits the representation of an ancient coin of 
Tyre, (copied from the second volume of Vaillant's ' Colonial 
Coins'), which bears on its face the figures of stones, and over 
[under] them the legend of ' Petrae Ambrosiae,' whilst beneath 
them is the figure of a conch shell." 

* The legend is COL .TYKO .METE.— See after. 

+ They are called " Immortal Stones," in " Gentlemen's Magazine," Fe- 
bruary 1829, p. 141. 

I It must be observed that many of the theories advanced in the " Hermes 
Britannicus" are much disputed. 

§ Pp. 120, 121, 122. 



375- 

The Round Temple of the Sun in Britain, mentioned by 
Diodorus, has been thought by some writers to allude to Stone- 
henge, and by others to Abury ; the latter at present appears to 
be the better opinion — that is, if Britain was meant by the under- 
mentioned ancient writers. In a paper in the " Journal of the 
Archaeological Institute-," by Edwin Guest, M.A., on the " Belgic 
Ditches, and the probable date of Stonehenge," it is stated 
that there is " a passage in Diodorus Siculus, which appears to 
have been taken from Hecataeus of Abdera, who flourished about 
three centuries before the Christian era. According to this 
authority, there was among the Hyperboreans a round temple 
dedicated to Apollo, and situated in an island ' opposite Celtica.' 
Our English antiquaries assume, that the word Celtica, in this 
passage, was used with the same meaning as by Strabo and his 
contemporaries ; or, in other words, that it signified Gaul ; and 
they conclude that the island was Britain, and the Bound Temple 
Stonehenge, or Avebury, or the Rolrich Circle, according to the 
particular hypothesis they are interested in supporting. Swedish 
antiquaries give to Celtica a wider meaning ; and as the ancients 
considered Scandinavia to be an island, they boldly claim the 
Round Temple of the Hyperboreans as Swedish property. Wes- 
seling, in a sensible note, examines these different hypotheses, 
and, for reasons which appear satisfactory, rejects them. He is 
inclined to fix the Round Temple far more to the eastward than 
would suit the views either of our own, or of the Swedish anti- 
quaries; and whether we agree with him or not, the criticism 
which identifies Stonehenge with this temple of the Hyper- 
boreans, rests, I think, on grounds much too questionable to 
secure the assent of any cautious inquirer." — (pp. 152, 153f.) 
However this may be, we know from Caesar that Britain was 
looked upon by the Gauls as the great centre of Druidism, and 
as the country in which its peculiar doctrines originated. He 
says : " Disciplina in Britannia reperta, atque inde in Galliam 
translata esse existimatur ; et nunc qui diligentius earn rem 

*. Vol. viii., p. 143, &c. 

+ But see the contrary opinions to this, set forth in the " Proceedings of the 
Archaeological Institute at Salisbury," p. 124, &c. 



376 

cognoscere volunt, plerumque illo discendi causa proficiscuntur." 
— B. G., 16. 

Mr. Guest thus concludes : — " I think, therefore, we may 
fairly conclude that Stonehenge is of later date than Avebury, 
and the other structures of unwrought stone ; that it could not 
have been built much later than the year 100 B.C., and in all 
probability was not built more than a century or two earlier. As 
to the antiquity of Avebury, I dare offer no conjecture. If the 
reader be more venturesome, and should fix its erection some 
eight or ten centuries before our era, it would be difficult to 
advance any critical reasons against his hypothesis." — (p. 157.) 

The following curious extract concerning stone-circles at 
Emsorah, or Autset, not far from Tangier, is from a work 
entitled " Notes taken during Travels in Africa," printed for 
private circulation only, by my late much lamented friend, John 
Davidson, Esq., F.K.S., F.S.A., &c* :— 

" After a ride of two hours over a beautifully undulating 
country, we arrived at Emsorahf, or, as the modern village is 
called, the Autset, from whence we had a fine view of the lesser 
Atlas. At the foot of the rising ground, where we had pitched 
our tent, was a magnificent plain ; and on the side of the hill is 

situated El Uted, or the Peg-rock Coming round the 

side of a hill, you perceive several stones forming a circlej, of 
which one, called the Peg, is much higher than the rest ; there 
is likewise a second circle, but a third is never to be seen." The 
whole neighbourhood is full of similar circles of stones, but 
smaller. Many of the latter have been worked artificially. The 
entrance to the circle, which is fifteen feet wide, faces the west ; 
on the north and south of the Peg are two other openings at 
equal distances. At about the distance of two hundred feet, 
there is a stone placed at an angle of 45°, intended, it is said, to 
mark the opening ; it is six feet high, and by lying on the back, 
one can see directly through the circle. From this stone a 

* See pp. 15, 16 of that work. 

f " For Mesbrah or Musawwesah (sculptured)." 

I In p. 177 of that work it is stated that Mr. Davidson seemed to think 
that the above-mentioned ruins were Druidical, and that he compared them 
with the remains of Stonehenge. 



377 

shelving road leads to a well called ' 'Am tayyeb ' (good spring). 
But the chief tradition of the place relates to the gold treasure 
said to be concealed here. The poor creatures sleep upon this 
stone in all weathers, and they were delighted to see the compass 
going round while we were taking the bearings of the place, for 

they fancied that the gold turned as the needle did One 

account attributes the erection of the stones to Pharaoh; by 
others it is said that there was once a large city there, subse- 
quently buried, and that what remains is only the top. I think 
it has been a large place, and I would willingly pay for exploring 
it. The people say it was the city of a giant race, who were of 
such a size that the shin-bone of a woman formed a bridge over 
the stream. The elk-horn of Ireland-. The 'Arakin on the 
E.S.E. are five large stones, one of which is like a coffin; but I 
think it is too solid to have ever answered that purpose. On the 
W.N.W. there are five others, each forming a sort of vestibule to 
the side entrances mentioned above. At the centre entrance the 
stones lie flat on the ground. It appears to have been a great 
place of resort for religious purposes, and the various circles to 
have been the various spots selected for the performance of 
religious rites. The circle is 630 feet; the Peg 16| feet high, 
and 6|- in circumference ; the larger entrance is 15 feet wide ; at 
the distance of 112 feet on the E.S.E. and W.N.W. sides are two 
other entrances, 5 feet wide, and the semi-diameter of the circle 
is 74 feet." 

In the eleventh chapter of the BooVof Joshua there is an 
account of the general destruction of the Anakim and other 
Canaanites, by Joshua. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his commentary 
thereon, says — " Besides the multitudes that perished in this 
war, many of the Canaanites took refuge in the confines of the 
land, and in the neighbouring nations. Some suppose that a 
party of these fugitive Canaanites made themselves masters of 
Lower Egypt, and founded a dynasty there known by the name 
of the shepherd kings ; but it is more probable that the shepherds 
occupied Egypt long before the time that Jacob went thither to 

* Mr. D. seems to allude here to a similar tradition in some part of 
Ireland. 



378 

sojourn. It is said they founded Tingris or Tangier, where, 
according to Procopius, they erected two white pillars, with an 
inscription in the Phoenician language, of which this is the 
translation : ' We are the persons who have fled from the face of 
Joshua the plunderer, the son of Nave or Nun.' (See Bochart, 
Phaleg and Canaan, Lib. i., c. xxiv., col. 476.) Many, no doubt, 
settled in different parts of Africa, in Asia Minor, in Greece, and 
in the different islands of the iEgean and Mediterranean Sea. 
It is supposed also that colonies of this people were spread over 
different parts of Germany and Sclavonia, &c, but their descend- 
ants are now so confounded with the nations of the earth, as no 
longer to retain their original name, or to be discernible." 

The port of Tangier, being on the Straits of Gibraltar, would 
be the very key whence these Phoenician or Tyrian colonists 
might carry on their trade with Britain, and disseminate their 
religion, manners, and customs amongst the natives*. 

The colonial coin of Tyre mentioned previously is certainly 
very remarkable, whether it supports Druidism or not. I am 
informed by Mr. Akerman that its genuineness is unquestionable, 
and that an ill-preserved specimen of one of the kind is in the 

cabinet of Dr. John Lee. A wood- 
cut of the coin in question is here 
given, taken from the engraving 
of it in Vaillant's work on Roman 
Colonial Coinsf , and therein stated 
to be of the time of Gordian III. 
Mr. Bowles, in his representation 
of this coin, describes the tree as 
an oak, but Vaillant states it to be 
an olive tree ; and after describing 
the Ambrosiae Petrae and flaming 
altar, states that the shell is of that kind from which the Tyrian 




* See the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute," "Vol. vii., p. 8, relative 
to a bronze figure of a bull found in Cornwall, conjectured by some to be 
Phoenician. 

+ Part ii., p. 151, ed. 1697, wherein he refers to Tristan's work, Vol. i., 
pp. 91, 491 ; and Vol. ii., p. 508 ; and also to Nonnus. 



379 




dye was made. In the same page of Vaillant's work there is 
another Tyrian coin, representing two stones and an olive tree 

between them, a serpent en- 
twined round the trunk of the 
tree ; and a shell, and the dog 
which, according to the legend, 
having cracked the shell and 
eaten the fish, his purple- 
stained mouth led to the dis- 
covery of the Tyrian dye. The 
inscription on this coin is 
" TYR. METRO. COL., "which 
Vaillant interprets, " Colonia 
Tyrus Metropolis." See the woodcut. 

These two coins are given in Vaillant's work, published in 
1688, p. 218, which work, likewise, in p. 148, contains a coin of 
the Tyrians, temp. Aquilia Severa, in which the two stones, 
instead of being represented smooth, as in the other cases, are 
like two rocks. In p. 351 of that work, a Tyrian coin of the 
time of Gallienus is represented with the stones smooth. It has 
the inscription, " Col. Tyro. Metr.," which Vaillant interprets, 
" Colonia Tyros Metropolis." 

In Patin's work on Roman coins, p. 299, a coin of the time of 
Caracalla is figured with the inscription, " Sept. Tyrus Met. 
Coloni"; and in p. 298, a coin of Sidon, with the inscription, 
" Col. Av. Metro. Sid." 

Mr. Akerman, in a paper " On the Stone Worship of the 
Ancients, illustrated by their Coins, " which was read before the 
Numismatic Society, January 18, 1838, and published in their 
" Transactions," states that " to these examples of consecrated 
rocks or mountains, may be added that recorded on a coin of 
Tyre, bearing the figures of two large upright stones*, inscribed 
AMBPOZIE TIETPE\. Although all these objects are 

* " Pausanias, Lib. viii., c. 15, describes two remarkable stones, called 
Petroma, venerated by the Pheneatge." 

+ " Mionnet, Descrip., Tom. v., p. 436, No. 667. Other coins of Tyre have 
this remarkable inscription." 



380 

figured with a smooth surface, they are without doubt intended 
to represent rocks, and not cone-shaped stones, a conclusion 
justly warranted by the fabulous account of the building of Tyre. 
Nonnus, in his ' Dionysiacs '*, says that the oracle instructed 
the founders of the city to proceed on their voyage until they 
came to two rocks, which they would find floating on the sea ; 
upon these they were to build new Tyre. The oracle was 
obeyed, and the city being built, the rocks became immoveable. 
On other coins of Tyre these holy rocks are represented with 
water streaming from the base of eachf. Another description of 
sacred stone appears on coins of Greek cities. On those of Tyre j 
we find a serpent entwined round a large egg-shaped stone. 
Vaillant considers that this relates to the serpent or dragon 
which was fabled to have been killed by Cadmus ; but though, 
on other coins of this renowned city, a man is represented 
engaged in combat with a serpent, it is by no means clear that 
the example in question refers to that exploit §." 

From all that has been said, and considering that Ambreley, 
Amberley, Ambresbury, and Ambury, are common names of old 
earth-works all over the kingdom, it appears more than probable 
that Amber Stones stood at such places in primitive times, which 
gave the names thereto ; and that the Banbury or Bambury 
Stone or Kock in Kemerton Camp, otherwise Bambury Camp, on 
the top of Bredon Hill, was one of these Ambrosial Petrae||, or 
Amber Stones, dedicated to the Sun by the Celtic Druids, either 
in imitation or independently of the form of worship of the 
Amonians, Phoenicians, or Tyrians. This would, if so, tend to 
confirm my idea that the Kemerton Camp is ancient British, 
although afterwards occupied by the Komans, Saxons, and 
DaneslT. 

* " Lib. xl." 

+ " Vaillant, Num. in Col. percussa." 

I " Vaillant, ibid. Tom. ii., p. 136." 

§ Ibid., p. 350, pub. 1688. 

|| There is a place called " Petre Hill" in Amblecote, Co. Stafford. 

^[ See pp. 83, 84, and the Celtic derivation of the name of the hill. Vide 
also the accounts of Eckington, Norton in Bredon, Sedgebarrow and Conderton, 
as to ancient relics found at those places. 



381 



€W« 



LOGAN STONES AND HOLE STONES. 

It has been contended by some antiquaries that the Logan, or 
Rocking Stones are not artificial. Now the question, as to 
whether they are artificial or not, is perhaps of little consequence 
in the research, as to the veneration and awe in which they were 
held by the ancients and the religious uses they consequently 
applied them to*. Perhaps, however, the truth is that some are 
natural, and produced or exposed by the gradual disintegration 
or denudation of rocks, but that others are artificial. 

The ancients possibly considered the natural Logan Stones, and 
also the basaltic columns (such as the Giant's Causeway and 
Fin gal's Cave) as the artificial productions of a prior gigantic 
race ; and in many instances erected similar Logan Stones f, par- 
ticularly where they found boulders, &c, at hand suited to their 
purpose. 

In later ages, very extraordinary ancient productions, whether 
natural or artificial, appear to have been frequently attributed to 
satanic influence, and hence we have the class of places called 
the Devil's Den, the Devil's Spadeful, the Devil's Leap, and the 
Devil's Pig- trough \. 

Not only the ancients held stones in great reverence which 
had holes through them, or were so placed as to leave a hole be- 

* " The Druids are supposed to have appealed to these stones in their sacred 
rites, divinations, and judgments." — See " Gentleman's Magazine" for March 
1842, p. 287. 

+ There is a Rocking Stone in Soyland, in Yorkshire, called the Awse, or 
Fames' Hole, with a Carnedh. — See Gough's " Camden," Vol. iii., p. 275, 
second edition, 1806. 

\ See Stanford, Kidderminster, Dodenham, Martley, and Leigh. 



382 

tween them ; but " the passing through a cleft or aperture in a 
rock, is a medical superstition, which has been found in many 
countries. It is mentioned, in the " Asiatic Eesearches," as com- 
mon in the east ; and Borlase commemorates it as practised with 
perforations of Druidical stones in Cornwall*." The peasantry in 
the country also fancy that a stone, with a hole in it, prevents 
witches riding horses, and hence it is oftentimes tied to the stable 
key ; and such stones they also hang up behind the cottage door, to 
preserve the house and its inhabitants from the baneful influence 
of the " evil eye." 

* See " Athenaeum," for September 5th, 1846, p. 909 ; and for September 
12th, p. 932. 






383 



dfeajtar p. 



HOAR STONES. 

From the Amber or Sacred Stones of primitive times, we 
descend to the Hoar Stones of a later age, which mark the period 
when this country began to be portioned out, and defined by 
distinct boundaries. 

In my account, in the first edition of this work, of the calca- 
reous rock called Hoar Stone, situated on the borders of Sapey 
Brook, in Tedstone Delamere, Herefordshire*, I suggested that 
such stones were so called from their being white or hoary ; but, 
upon a subsequent perusal of the late Mr. Hamper's workf on 
the subject, it appears evident that they were so called on account 
of their being either placed or adopted as boundaries, or marks 
of division. He says the Hoar Stone is " the stone of memorial, 
or land mark, describing the boundary of property, whether of a 
public or a private nature, as it has been used in almost all 
countries, from the patriarchal era down to the days of the 
present generation ; and that the Greek ' Horos,' the Latin 
' Ora,' the Celtic and Welsh ' Or' and ' Oir,' the Armoric ' Harz,' 
the Anglo-Saxon ' Or,' ' Ord' and ' Ora;' the German ' Ort,' the 
Italian ' Orlo,' the old French ' Oree,' the French ' Orle,' the 
Spanish ' Orla,' the Arabic ' Ori,' the obsolete British ' Yoror,' 
the obsolete Irish ' Ur' and ' Or,' the Gaelic or Erse ' Ear' and 
' Aird,' with similar words in other languages, have all, to a cer- 
tain degree, one and the self-same meaning, namely, a bound or 
limit ;" and that " the unaspirated Greek ' Oros', denoting a moun- 

* See pp. 48, 49 of that edition. 

+ Entitled " Observations on Certain Ancient Pillars of Memorial called 
Hoar Stones," by William Hamper, Esq., F.S.A., &c, published in 1832. 



384 

tain, one of the natural limitations of vision, its root, and that of 
all the preceding words, may probably be referred to the Hebrew 
' Hor,' or ' Har,' a mountain, which, in a secondary sense, seems 
to be used for a termination." Of this he gives several instances, 
such as Mount Hor, Hermon, Ar-oer, Ar-non, &c. * 

It appears, however, from Mr. Hamper's work, that I was not 
singular in considering that the name Hoar Stone meant a white 
or hoary stone, for he, in describing the notions of different 
authors concerning them, says, in Section I., as follows : — 

" SOMNEE. 

" The Anglo-Saxon words ' on thane haren stan,' in a charter 
relative to the monastery of Wolverhampton, Co. Stafford, are 
rendered ' in lapidem mucidum,' under the idea of haren mean- 
ing hoary. — ' Monasticon Angl.,' i., p. 989." 

The following, from Mr. Hamper's work, also are interesting, 
as bearing upon our subject : — 

" GOUGH. 

" The boundaries of Codeston, now Cutsdean, Co. Worcester, are 
described in the Anglo-Saxon of Heming's ' Cartulary,' p. 348, as 
coming ' on thsene haran stan, of thane haran stan andlang 
grenan weyes,' which is translated, in Nash's ' Worcestershire,' 
Vol. ii. App., p. 45, ' on to the grey stone, from the grey stone 
along the green way.' 

" Mr. Nichols informed the writer that the translations from 
Heming, in the above-named history, were by the editor of 
' Camden.' " 

" HUTTON. 

" This author, speaking of a Koman station at Birmingham, 
says, he can find no vestiges remaining, though ' the most likely 
place is Wor-ston,' which he interprets ' Wall-stone,' part of the 
Ikeneld Street being called Warstone Lane in passing through 
that neighbourhood. — ' History of Birmingham,' third edition, 
p. 221." 

" The stone itself is mentioned in deeds as late as a.d. 1676." 

* Also, see " Gentleman's Magazine" for November 1840, upon the subject. 



385 

" Nichols. 

" In Humberston Field, Co. Leicester, the apex of a rock, 
rising considerably above the ground, is called Holstone, which 
Mr. Nichols conjectures to be a corruption of Holy-stone ; adding, 
that in Dorsetshire, and the other western counties, these holy 
stones are very frequent, and ' by the common people sometimes 
called Hell-stones, a name deducible either from helian, to cover 
or conceal, or rather from heilig, holy.' — ' History of Leicester- 
shire,' Vol. iii., Part 2, p. 981, Note 2." 

" Dudley. 

" The Rev. John Dudley, under the signature of J. D., in the 
' Gentleman's Magazine' for 1813, Part 1, p. 318, calls the stone 
mentioned in the last extract, ' Hoston-stone, or Hoston, mean 
ing, probably, High-stone*.' " 

" Watson. 

" In an account of Druidical remains at Halifax, in Yorkshire, 
by the Rev. John Watson, ' Archaeologia,' Vol. ii., p. 353, it is 
said, that ' the Rocking Stone is situated so as to be a boundary 
mark between the two townships of Golcar and Slaighthwait, and 
gives the name of Hole-stone Moor to the adjoining grounds, 
corrupted, as I take it (adds Mr. Watson, p. 356), from Holy-stone, 
or Holed-stone.' " 

In Section III., Mr. Hamper gives a list of a great number of 
Hoar Stones, or places named from them ; namely, about seventy- 
five in England, two in Scotland, and eighteen in Wales. Of 
those in England, the following fourteen are in Worcestershire : — 

Worcestershire. — The Hore-stone in the Foreign of Kidder- 
minsterf. 

Hore-stone Field, inNorthfield, so called in a deed, a.d. 1687, 
though corrupted into the Oar-stone Field, in particulars of North- 
field Manor, &c, for sale, a.d. 1820. 

* But see pp. 369, 370, as to Mr. Dudley's subsequent opinion. 

f This stone is noticed in the Ordnance Survey Map. The farm there is 
called the Hoar-stone Estate, which is situated within one mile of Bewdley 
and two miles of Kidderminster. Also see " Codex Dip.," No. 415, 415 App., 
Vol. vi., as to a place called Hore-stan. 

C C 



386 

Land called Hauxmore, in Leigh, is described in a MS. Survey 
of Malvern Chase, a.d. 1633, as " lying after the head waie from 
Cowley's Oke towards the Hoare-stone." 

Whor-stone Field, partly in King's Norton, and partly in 
Cofton Hacket. 

" Horston Field, in Feckenham." Letters patent, 37 Hen. 
VIII., in the possession of the late Christopher Hunt, Esq. 

Whor-stone Grove Coppice, at Himbleton, mentioned on a 
tablet in the church. 

" De Apulthonesford usque Horestan." — Survey of Broms- 
grove, Norton, and Alvechurch, temp. Edw. III. Nash, Vol.. i., 
p. 23. 

" Horestan, and Le Horeston, in Bromsgrove." — Testa de 
Nevill. 

" Of reodmsedwan on Haranstan." — Heming's " Cartulary," 
describing the boundaries of Tredington, p. 39. 

" On thone Haran-stan." — Ibid., Cutsdean, pp. 167, 348. 

" Of thone Haran-stan." — Ibid., Clive, p. 245. 

" Into Cyles dene to tham Haran-stane." — Ibid., Hallow, p, 339. 

" On wene [thene] grene weie wat [that] on Horeston." — 
Ibid., Cutsdean, p. 433. 

" Duo crofta voc' Horestone Crofts, jac' insimul inter regiam 
viam que ducit, inter Sterbrigge et Worcester, ex parte orient, 
et parvum torentum vocat.' Horestone Broke al' Holy Broke." 
— Rental of Hagley, at Lord Lyttelton's ; 23 Hen. VIII. 

And the following are some of those which are in the neigh- 
bouring counties. 

Gloucestershire. — The Hore-stone at Dunteshourne Abbots ; 
engraved in the " Archaeologia," xvi., p. 362. 

Herefordshire. — The Hoar-stone at Tedstone Delamere. — 
Duncumb, ii., p. 197. 

Leicestershire. — The Holstone in Humberstone Field. — 
Nichols, iii., Part 2, p. 981. 

Monmouthshire. — " Per circuitum usque at Horston." Boun- 
daries of land belonging to Tin tern Abbey. — " Monast. Angl." L, 
p. 723. 



387 

Harold's-stones, at Trelech. King, " Munimenta Antiqua," i., 
p. 199. Also Coxe's " Monmouthshire," ii., p. 332, where they 
are engraved, and called Druidical. 

Oxfordshire. — The War-stone at Enstone. 

Shropshire. — The Hoar-stone in Hales Owen *, dividing it from 
Northfield, Co. Worcester. 

Staffordshire. — Land in Harborne called Horestone. — Nash, 
" Worcester.," ii., App., p. 36. 

Warwickshire. — The Hoar-stone at Whitley, near Coventry. 

The Whar-stones, a field at Erdington. The Hoar-stone 
between the parishes of Aston and Sutton Coldfield. 

The Whor-stone at Castle Bromwich, still remaining in a field 
bordering on Little Bromwich, called " Le Horestonefeld," in a 
deed, temp. Edw. I. 

In Section II. , Mr. Hamper enumerates a great number of 
places and things called by the following names, and which I 
have subjoined, because they will tend to throw much light upon 
many of the names which will be hereafter mentioned in the 
lines of ancient roads, &c. 
No. 

1. Hoar. 

2. Hoar Oak. 

3. Hoar Withy. 

4. Hoar Thorn. 

5. Hoar Hazel. 

6. Hoar Maple. 

7. Hoar Apple-tree. 

8. Hoar Cross. 

9. Hoar Stoke, or Place. 

10. Hoar Ham, or Home. 

11. Hoar Ton, or Inclosure. 

1 2. Hoar Worth, or Inclosure. 

13. Hoar Wood. 

14. Hoar Thwait, Assart, or Ridding. 

15. Hoar Park. 

16. Hoar Land. 

* The whole of Hales Owen was added to Worcestershire in 1844, by the 
Reform Bill. 



388 
No, 



17. 


Hoar Grounds. 


3 8. 


Hoar Ley, or Pasture, 


19. 


Hoar Mead. 


20. 


Hoar Ing, or Meadow. 


21. 


Hoar Field. 


22. 


Hoar Croft. 


23. 


Hoar Moor. 


24. 


Hoar Moss. 


25 


Hoar Quebb, or Quagmire. 


26. 


Hoar Slade, or Narrow Valley- 


27. 


Hoar Comb, or Valley. 


28. 


Hoar Dean, or Dale. 


29. 


Hoar Dell. 


30. 


Hoar Gill, or Glen. 


31. 


Hoar Hyrne, or Corner. 


32. 


Hoar Wick, or Bank. 


33. 


Hoar Knap, or Eising. 


34. 


Hoar Copp, Mound, or Hillock. 


35. 


Hoar Don, or Hill. 


36. 


Hoar Grave, Trench, or Vallum. 


37. 


Hoar Law, or Mount. 


38. 


Hoar Bury, Borough, or Earth- work 


39. 


Hoar Hill. 


40. 


Hoar Hope, or Height. 


41. 


Hoar Edge. 


42. 


Hoar Ridge. 


43. 


Hoar Cragg. 


44. 


Hoar Cliff. 


45. 


Hoar Rock. 


46. 


Hoar Torr. 


47. 


Hoar Way. 


48. 


Hoar Street. 


49. 


Hoar Lane. 


50* 





* Mr. Hamper here inserted Hoar Path, from " Herepath ;" but that word 
signifies a military road. 



389 



No. 




51. 


Hoar Gate, or Wicket. 


52. 


Hoar Gate, or Road. 


53. 


Hoar Ford. 


54. 


Hoar Bridge. 


55. 


Hoar Wear. 


56. 


Hoar Cote. 


57. 


Hoar House. 


58. 


Hoar Hall. 


59. 


Hoar By, or Village. 


60. 


Hoar Chester, or Camp. 


61. 


Hoar Castle. 


62. 


Hoar Dyke. 


63. 


Hoar Sytch, Sike, or Water-course 


64. 


Hoar Bourne, or Rivulet. 


65. 


Hoar Wash, or Water. 


66. 


Hoar Mouth, or Embouchure. 


67. 


Hoar Mere. 


68. 


Hoar Pool. 


69. 


Hoar Pit. 


70. 


Hoar Well. 



Of the above, the following are either in Worcestershire or on 
or near the border of it : — 

HOAR WITHY. 
" On thone Haran Withig." — Heming's " Cartulary," de- 
scribing the limits of. Pendock, Co. Worcester, pp. 183, 184, 
360, 361. 

HOAR APPLE-TREE. 

" On the Haran Apel-treo." — Heming's " Cartulary," Boun- 
daries of Wyke*, Co. Worcester, p. 75. 

* This Wyke means Wick Episcopi, in the parish of St. John, in Bedwar- 
dine, near the city of Worcester. (There also is Wyke, Wick, or Wych 
Waryn,near Pershore.) The apple-tree stood near where the Teme joins the 
Severn. 



390 

" In Haran Eapol-derne." — Ibid., Cofton, Co. Worcester, p. 7. 
Bishop Lyttelton translates this, " to the grey apple-trees," in 
his account of Alvechurch parish, as printed by Nash, Vol. i., 
p. 20. 

" To thaere Haran- Apeldran." — Ibid., Hallow, Co. Worcester, 
p. 340. 

HOAR STOKE, OR PLACE. 

Warstock, in King's Norton, Co. Worcester, is close to War- 
wickshire ; and, on an inquisition being taken there, 5 Edward 
III., is described in the Escheat Roll as " le Horestok, in con- 
finio comitat. Wigorn. et Warr." 

HOAR LEY, OR PASTURE. 

" Ondlang thses weyes on Haran Lash." — Heming's " Car- 
tulary," describing the boundaries of Lawern, Co. Worcester, 
pp. 161, 349. 

Worley, Wigorn ; and Worley, Salop ; two hamlets in those 
respective counties, joining each other. 

HOAR LAND. 

Hore Londe, at Wootton Wawen, Co. Warwick, is mentioned 
in the Minister's accounts of the Duke of Buckingham, Henry 
VII., and is probably the same as now called Whor Knap, bor- 
dering on Oldborough and Morton. 

HOAR MEAD. 

War Meadow, in Solihull, Co. Warwick, abutting on King's 
Norton, Co. Worcester. 

HOAR CROFT. 

War Croft, in Solihull, Co. Warwick, abutting on King's 
Norton, Co, Worcester. 



391 



HOAR QUEBB*, OR QUAGMIRE. 

" A leasowe, or pasture, called Hore Quebbe, within the forren 
of Biriningham, nighe Wynsdon Greene," is named in a deed, 
33 Elizabeth. 



HOAR KNAPf, OR RISING. 

Whor Knap, at the verge of Wootton Wawen parish, Co. 
Warwick, bordering on Oldberrow and Morton. (See Horelond.) 

HOAR GRAVE, TRENCH, OR VALLUM J. 

" Andlang thasre die in Here grafun." — Heming's "Cartulary," 
boundaries of Witlinc, Co. Worcester, pp. 171, 354. It appears 
to be the same place as Hargraves, in a survey of the limits of 
Hartlebury, about a.d. 1648 (Nash, Vol. i., p. 570). 

Hargrave, an estate in Bickenhill, Co. Warwick, bordering on 
the parishes of Elmdon and Hampton-in-Arden. It is called 
" The Hargroves§," in a particular of sale, a.d. 1662. 

HOAR EDGE. 

One of the summits of the Titterstone Clee Hill, near Ludlow, 
Co. Salop, is called the War-edge. 

* There is a place called Quabb Coppice, in Suckley; and The Quob 
Meadow, in Hanley William. 

+ There is the Knap, in Alfrick. 

J " Grave also signifies a grove ; perhaps, in its primary application, one 
that was protected by a graff, or trench ; as, I presume, a coppice derives its 
name from the cops or mounds enclosing it." The word " graf" means a 
grove, and " grefa," " graefa," ahole. (See Bromsgrove, p. 122.) With respect to 
the word " cop," there are Copson's Coppice, in Alfrick ; Copern Hill, in 
Lulsley ; Copson's, in Claines ; Copern Pit, in Hallow ; and Peril Cop, in 
Astley — all in Worcestershire; and Great Coppel Croft, and Little Coppel 
Croft, in Arley, in Warwickshire. 

§ There are places called Norgrove, in Alfrick; Norgroves-end Farm, in 
Bayton ; and Norgrove, in Feckenham. The adding an N to names and 
words, is a vulgarism of the county. See pp. 365, 366. 



:592 



HOAR RIDGE. 

Horridge is a hamlet in Corse, Co. Gloucester, bordering on 
Worcestershire. 

HOAR LANE. 

" Hairlane, otherwise Herlon, Harelane, and Bound-lane," in 
the suburbs of Gloucester. — Rudder, p. 205. Mr. Fosbroke, in 
his history of that city, p. 8, calls it Hare-lone, Here-lone ; i.e. 
Army-lane," without noticing it as Bound-lane, which is merely 
a translation of its ancient appellative. 

HOAR BOURN, OR RIVULET. 

Harborne (in " Domesday," Horeborne), Co. Stafford, bor- 
dering on Warwickshire and Worcestershire. 

HOAR MERE. 

" Of tham on tha ealdan die on Haran maere." — Hemings 
" Cartulary," boundaries of Bishop s Stoke [Stoke Orchard], Co. 
Worcester [Gloucester], p. 122. 

HOAR PIT. 

" Of sandune on Hor pytte." — Hemings " Cartulary," boun- 
daries of Tidminton, Co. Worcester, pp. 192, 348*. 

" Andlang rices thset cymth to thaem Hor pytte. " — Ibid., 
Longdon, p. 209. 

HOAR WELLf. 

A land boundary at Pershore, Co. Worcester, is " Hor 
wyllan," Cotton MS., Augustus II., Art. 6. 

* Also see Nash, Vol. ii., App. 45. 

•(• In Severn Stoke, Earl's Croomb, and Defford, there are places called 
" Part of Horrell Orchard." See " Codex Dip.," No. 340, 340 App., Vol. iii., 
and 570, as to Horwyl, in Worcestershire ; and Hearing's " Cartulary," p. 
541, as to Horewell. 



393 

" Inde per Fulanbroc usque in Haren willes." — Boundaries at 
Evesham, Co. Worcester, " Monast. Angl.," Vol. i., p. 145. 

The following is the account given in the " Archseologia, " 
(Vol. xvi.*) of the Duntesbourne Abbot's Stone : — 

" Nov. 20, 1806. — An account of a tumulus, opened on an 
estate of Matthew Bailie, M.D., in the parish of Duntesbourne 
Abbots, in Gloucestershire, communicated to Samuel Lyson, Esq., 
Director, by the Bev. Anthony Friston, rector of Edgeworth, in 
the same county. 

" The length of the barrow was about forty yards, and the width 
thirty ; it contained about eight or nine bodies, of different ages ; 
it was composed of loose quarry stones. The largest stone, at 
the east end, has been long known in that county by the name 
of the ' Hoar Stone.' It is of the calcareous kind, twelve feet 
high, fifteen in circumference, and weighs probably about five or 
six tons." 

Thus, it appears evident that the primitive Logan and Amber 
stones were, in some instances, made use of in the later ages, as 
Hoar or boundary stones. 

The etymology advanced by Messrs. Dudley and Nichols, in 
regard to the Holstone, in Humberston Field, might at first 
appear, in that particular instance, to militate against the idea of 
its being a Hoar-stone ; nevertheless, however that may be, it is 
pretty clear, from the name Humberston, or Amber-stone Field, 
that it was originally an Amber-stone. Indeed, this principle 
appears to be admitted by Mr. Hamper himself, in the second 
edition of his work (although not in the first f), wherein he, in 
his account of the Merionethshire stones, called the Graves of 
the Men of Ardudwy, says : — " It seems probable that they 
were early sepulchral monuments, though not less likely, on that 
account, to become the termini of later times ; for the Hoar- 
stone at Duntesbourne, Co. Gloucester, already mentioned, is 
fixed upon an ancient sepulchral tumulus ; and a barrow in 

* See Appendix thereto, pp. 361, 362. 

+ The first edition was published in 1820. 



394 

Norfolk is actually the boundary mark of the three parishes of 
Aylsham, Burgh, and Tutington." — " Archseologia," Vol. xvi., 
p. 355. 

And in his account of the War-stone, at Enstone, in Oxford- 
shire, he says : — " A view and description of this stone are given 
in the " Gentleman's Magazine " for February 1824, by Edward 
Kudge, Esq., who judiciously deems it to have been originally a 
cromlech, supported after the manner of Kit's * Coity-house, 
upon three stones of smaller dimensions, which are still remain- 
ing close to it." 

Mr. Hamper also thus notices the Harold's stones at Trelech, in 
Pembrokeshire : "A stone pitched on end, on the farm of Harold- 
stone." — Fenton, p. 24. And added, Mr. Fenton thinks it 
" rather remarkable that there should be so many places called 
Harold-stone, or, at least, with Harold prefixed, in this country." 

Under the head " Hoar Hill," Mr. Hamper remarks, " In Over 
Alderley, Co. Chester, at the present boundary of Alderley and 
Presbury parishes, and near the ancient division of Hamestan 
and Bochelan Hundreds, is an estate called the Harehills." 
" Omerod," in., p. 307. 

Harehillf, near the Koman Wall, Co. Cumberland. " Horse- 
ley," p. 153. 

Harehill, near Leeds, Co. York. Thoresby, by Whitaker, 
p. 145. 

In Leigh there are places called the Hoardings, and Harding's 
Meadow J. In Alfrick, Norgrove ; in Bayton, Norgrove. 

In Lulsley there is Harding Orchard, and Horridge Coppice. 

In Hagley there are places called Hoarstone, Big Hoarstone, 
and Little Hoarstone. In Frankley, a chapelry in Hagley, there 
is Warstone Farm. In Cofton Hackett, a place called Part of 
Warstone. In Powick, a place called Soar Oak Field. In White 
Ladies Aston, Harrold's Close. In Elmley Castle parish, a piece 

* See " Suckley," p. 242. 

+ This is also noticed in Hutton's " History of the Roman Wall," p. 206, 
which, he says, " by the bye, stands in a valley." 

J Perhaps this is the site of the Hoar-stone which lay towards Cowley's Oak, 
before described. See p. 386. 



395 

called Worrall, In Birlingham, Harrils Hill. In Severn Stoke, 
Earl's Croomb, and Defford, a piece called Horrell Orchard. 
Between Church Honeybourne and Middle Littleton, a place called 
Norridge Hill. In Holt with Little Witley, places called Hares- 
hill Field and Hareshill Orchard. In Offenham, places called 
Norvill, Lower, Middle, and Upper Norvill. In Chaddesley 
Corbett, places called Warstone, Little Warstone, and Warrage. 
In Longdon, Hare Plock, and Hare Bridge. In Chaseley, Norgast 
Field, Great, Middle, and South Norgast Field. In Feckenham 
there are places called Worralls, Worrall's Hill, Worrall's 
Meadow, Wargrove, Warridge, Upper and Lower Horcuts, Nor- 
grove, Norbury Hill, North Norbury Hill, and South Norbury. 
In Upton Warren, Warridge Lodge Homestall, and Warranton 
Meadow. In Hartlebury, Hargrove, Hargroves, and Hargrove 
Lane. In Oldborough, Harding's Pleck, Harding's Meadow, 
and Warnap Hill. In Whittington, Norcroft, Hares Close, 
and Wordings. In Stock and Bradley, a place called Harcourts. 
In Tidmington, Hoar Pit. In Abberley, Hareshill and Warden. 
In Catshall and Coneygree, in Ombersley, Hither Warvill, and 
Further Warvill. In Uphampton, in Ombersley, Warwill. In 
Chadwick, in Bromsgrove parish, Warding. In Hanley William, 
Upper Hurcott. In Grimley, Hares Moor. In King's Norton, 
Warstone, and Warstock Piece. In Cradley, in Hales Owen, 
Warling Meadow and Coppy (Coppice). In Northfield, Warstone, 
and Warstone Field. In Clent, Warstone, Upper Wargen and 
Lower Wargen. In Martley, Warcroft. 

HEREFORDSHIRE. 

In Ullingswick, Horestone, Horestone Length, and Horestone 
Piece. In Wolverlow, Hare Hill. In Ledbury parish, Hare 
Hill, and Warcroft. In Much Marcle, Harold's Croft, Harwell 
Orchard, Harwell Field, and Worrall's Meadow. In or near Ken- 
derchurch, Harold's Ewias. In Upper Sapey, Warden's Grove, 
At Kentchurch, Orcopp. In Cradley, Harrold's Coppice, (or 
Herold's Copse), Harrold's Orchard, Harrold's Meadow, and Big 
and Little Harrells. In Collington, Hoarstone Leys, Hoarstone 



396 

Leasow, Hoarstone Piece, Hoarstone Hopyard, and Hoar Meadow. 
In Orleton, Harescroft. 

STAFFORDSHIRE. 

In Amblecoate, Hare's Close. 

WARWICKSHIRE. 

In Solihull, Warstock Corner, War Croft, War Meadow, War- 
ing s Coppice, Hare Croft, and Near Hare Croft. 

GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
In Dymock, Harding's, Harcomb, and Harcomb Coppice. 

OXFORDSHIRE. 

In Chastleton, Harcomb, and Wyton's Harcomb. 

Near Dublin a place called Harold's Cross. 

" Domesday Book " has Harehille, in Gorsedone's hd. Co. 
Gloucester ; and Hore-dane, and Horefelle*, in that county. 
Horebourne, in Staffordshire ; Horemede, in Herefordshire ; and 
Haregrave in Northamptonshire and Cheshire. 

In WALES, single stones set up as boundaries, or as com- 
memorative of any event, were termed " Meini-hirion," or tall 
stones, and were often spoken of as " Llaydion," i.e., grey. Now, 
there is a piece of land called Greystone Field, in the parish of 
Dudley ; and there are fields in the parish of Ilfracombe, in 
Devonshire, called Near, Far, Inner, Big and Little Greystone, 
also places called Eastern, Middle and Western Horedown, The 
Broad Hoar, and Higher and Lower Arcomb Meadow. In Cuts- 
dean, Worcestershire, there is the Grey-stone. 

* Also, Tristham's Harries, Rowberry, and Kitstone. 



397 



tffeapttr ». . 
OLDBUBY 

(PLACES SO CALLED). 

In pp. 34, 35, some observations are made relative to two or 
three places in Worcestershire, called by the name of Oldbury, 
accompanied by the remark, that the name is an evidence that 
such places were generally occupied by the Romans. The fol- 
lowing list, which contains all such places as have come to my 
knowledge within the county, together with a few of those met 
with in the neighbouring counties, may not be thought 
altogether uninteresting. 

Oldbury, in Hales Owen *, also in St. John's, near Worcester ; 
Big Oldburrow, in Wolverley; Oldbury Field, in Hindlip; 
Oldbury Barn, in or near Elmbridge ; Holborough Green, near 
Feckenham ; Holbro' Field, in Inkberrow ; Oldbury, in Upton, 
Warren ; Little Oldbrough, and Little Oldbury Wood, in the 
parish of Oldberrow ; Oldbury, on the boundary of Smite f, which 
lies partly in Warndon, and partly in Hindlip ; Oldbury Rough, 
in the parish of Bromsgrove ; Oldbury, Big, Little, and Middle 
Oldbury, and Far Oldbury Meadow, in Rushock; Aldbrough 
Meadow, in Beoley ; Big Holbourne, in Shelsley Beauchamp ; 
Howbourne Hill, in South Littleton ; and Howbourne, in 
Norton-juxta-Kempsey. 

* There was in the Anglo-Saxon times a place called Ealdanburh, 
Aldbury, or Oldbury, in Worcestershire. See " Codex Dip.," No. 570 ; also 
see Elbury Hill, pp. 223 to 226. 

t See Heming's " Cartulary," Vol. ii., p. 355. 



398 

The following are not in Worcestershire : — High Oldbury, in 
Amblecote, Co. Stafford. 

Oldbury Gardens, at Tewkesbury, Co. Gloucester. 

Oldbury, in Much Marcle ; Oldbury and Vineyard, in the 
parish of Ledbury ; and Lower Oldbury, in Linton, Co. Hereford. 

Oldborough Castle, near Abury, Co. Wilts. 




399 



tffcajbr SI- 
CASTLE 

(ANCIENT SPOTS SO CALLED). 

In p. 145 I quoted Bishop Lyttelton's opinion, that a place 
called Castle Field, not far from the Camp in Over Arley, but 
on the west side of the river, " was so named from the Eomans 
encamping there, as no ruins of a castle, or any tradition of there 
ever having been one there remains." Now, this also may be 
equally said respecting the Castle Hill in Hadley Heath Camp*, 
and of a place called Payne's Castle, in Alfrickf, where there is 
nothing but a cottage. In " Grose's Antiquities of England 
and Wales," p. 1, it is stated that " the Saxons, Romans, and 
even according to some writers of antiquity, the ancient Britons, 
had castles built with stone." 

In a paper in the " Gentleman's Magazine," for July 1842, 
entitled, " An Inquiry into the true History of King Arthur," 
it is stated, in the account of " The Battle of Castle Gurnion," 
that " the title of castle, which is here prefixed, denoted, in the 
phraseology of the middle ages, a Roman fortress, or a town built 
on Roman foundations, in the same sense in which ' Chester,' 
or ' Chesters' is used in numerous instances in the existing 
topography of Britain." 

There are Castle Green Suffield, and Castle Hill Meadow, in 
Leigh parish ; Big Castle Field, in Avenbury ; Castle Hill, in 
Lindridge ; Castle Tump Meadow, in Eastham ; Castle Hill, in 
Upton Snodsbury ; Castle Field, Castle Bank, and Little Castle, 
in Mathon ; Castle Hill, in Feckenham ; Kit's Castle, Castle 

* See p. 108. f See p. 239. 



400 

Tump, and Castle Meadow, in Tenbury parish ; The Castle 
Hedge, in Broom ; Castle Hill, in Clent ; Castle Acre, in JIanley 
Child; Castle Hill, in Northfield ; Ked Castle Orchard, in 
Suckley ; Castle Hill Meadow, in Martley ; Great Castle Hill, 
and Castle Hill, in Romsley, in Hales Owen ; and Great Castle 
Field, in Hillhampton, in Martley. 



^Y"^ h % - 



401 



ffifrajta §11. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 

RELATIVE TO THE ANCIENT NAMES OF FIELDS, 

&e. 

My principal object in marshalling together so large an array 
of names of fields and places in the different parishes, particularly 
in the lines or supposed lines of the ancient roads, has been the 
hope that in many instances these names will tend to throw light 
upon the etymology of each other, and also upon their own his- 
tory both in early and later times. The sources to which I am 
mainly indebted under this head are the surveys and apportion- 
ments under the Tithe Commutation Act, the Ordnance Survey 
Map, and the " Report" and " Further Reports of the Commis- 
sioners for Inquiring concerning Charities*." 

Although some of these names have become partially corrupted 
by provincial pronunciation, it seems almost miraculous that so 
large a number have been accurately preserved through the lapse 
of so many ages. I have inserted the names of the places, as 
they appeared in the authorities from which I drew them ; and 
when I knew any such to be erroneous, or that the places also 
went by other names, such additional information has likewise 
been given. Should it be asked what evidence we have that such 
names were given in ancient times, we reply that, for the most 
part, the evidence is internal, but not the less positive on that 
account ; and that, although the names of some of the places may 

* The names of the parishes, vills, and hamlets, have generally been taken 
from Dr. Nash's " History," Dr. Thomas's " History," Heming's " Cartulary," 
and the " Codex Diplomaticus." 

D D 



402 

have been borrowed in after-times from those of an earlier date, 
while others may have assumed, by a process of corruption, their 
present form, yet, notwithstanding this, the majority of the names 
are, undoubtedly, as they appear to be, of genuine antiquity. I 
must here remark, that I consider myself particularly fortunate 
that, at the present time, so many independent circumstances 
have concurred throughout the length and breadth of the land, as 
above stated, to assist my scattered gleanings; and, although 
much that is ancient flies before the advance of the railway, and 
the spread of more accurate knowledge, still it is consolatory that, 
in their passage, these vast engines of destruction, alike to tradi- 
tionary names and legendary superstitions, shed a momentary 
light upon their victims, by aid of which the friendly antiquary 
can, at least, write their epitaph. 

That land was in early times divided into fields, we know 
from Saxon grants, which describe hedges and ditches ; and, 
Sharon Turner, in his " History of the Anglo-Saxons*," thus 
remarks upon the subject : — 

" When the Anglo-Saxons invaded England, they came into a 
country which had been under the Roman power for about four 
hundred years, and where agriculture, after its more complete 
subjection by Agricola, had been so much encouraged, that it had 
become one of the western granaries of the empire. The Britons, 
therefore, of the fifth century may be considered to have pursued 
the best system of husbandry then in use, and their lands to 
have been extensively cultivated, with all those exterior circum- 
stances which mark established proprietorship and improvement : 
as, small farms, inclosed fields, regular divisions into meadow, 
arable, pasture, and wood ; fixed boundaries, planted hedges, 
artificial dykes and ditches, selected spots for vineyards, gardens, 
and orchards, connecting roads and paths, scattered villages, and 
larger towns ; with appropriated names for every spot and object 
that marked the limits of each property, or the course of each 
way. All these appear in the earliest Saxon charters, and before 
the combating invaders had time or ability to make them, if they 

* Vol jji., App. No. 2. 



403 

had not found them in the island. Into such a country the 
Anglo-Saxon adventurers came, and by these facilities to rural 
civilization, soon became an agricultural people. The natives, 
whom they despised, conquered, and enslaved, became their 
educators and servants in the new arts, which they had to learn, 
of grazing and tillage ; and the previous cultivation practised by 
the Romanised Britons will best account for the numerous divi- 
sions, and accurate and precise descriptions of land which occur 
in almost all the Saxon charters. No modern conveyance could 
more accurately distinguish or describe the boundaries of the 
premises which they conveyed." 



The following are summaries of the places, in or near the 
county, called by the names " Ridgeway," " Portway," and 
" Street." 



C jr ~ 



404 



Cimgter fill. 



KIDGEWAYS. 

There are several plots called Ridgeway, in Norton, in Bredon; 
Little Bidgeway, in Newland ; Ridgeway Leasow, and Great and 
Little Ridgeway, and Rudgeway or Ridgeway Ham or Common 
Field, in Powick ; Ridgeway Meadow, in the parish of St. John, 
in Bedwardine ; Ridgeway, in Feckenham ; Ridgeway Close, in 
Tardebig ; Ridgeway, in the hamlet of Northwick, in Blockley ; 
Ridgeway Field, in Doderhill ; Big Ridgeway Pieces, in Leigh ; 
Rudgeway Furlong, in Broadway ; and Ridgeway, in Eastham ; — 
all of which are in Worcestershire. 

In Herefordshire there are Ridgeway Field and Ridgeway 
Coppice, in the parish of Ledbury ; The Ridgeway, between the 
Herefordshire Beacon Camp and Eastnor ; and Ridgeway Cross 
and Ridgeway Oak, in Cradley. 

In Gloucestershire there are Ridgeway Hill, Ridgeway Piece, 
and Ridgeway Meadow, in Fiddington, in Ashchurch ; and Rudge- 
way, between Tredington and Walton Cardiff. 

With respect to the above-mentioned " Rudgeway Furlong," in 
Broadway, it is stated, in the " 24th Further Report of the Com- 
missioners for inquiring concerning Charities" for the county of 
Worcester, p. 574, that a plot of charity land, therein mentioned, 
is " a sellion or rudge of arable land, lying in the common fields, 
in a furlong there, called Rudgeway Furlong," situate at " the 
upper end of Broadway." Now, Johnson, quoting Ainsworth, 
gives the word " sellion" thus, — " Selion. s. [Selio, low Latin] a 
ridge of land ;" therefore it is quite clear, from the above, that 
Rudge means Ridge. 

An account of the main lines and branches of the Ridgeway, or 
Rycknield Street, will be found at p. 329 to 353. 



105 



€W« %l 



PORTWAYS. 

In either Badsey, Aldington, or Bretforton, a piece used to be 
called Portway Furlong*. There is Portway Piece, in Wolverley ; 
Portway Plat, in Croces in Sychampton, in Ombersley; Porte 
Fields Farm, and Porte Fields Eoad, in Claines ; The Portway, 
in Beoley; Portridge Field, Little Portridge, and Portnells in 
the Berrow ; The Portweye, formerly in Kempsey ; Portway Field, 
in Warley, in Hales Owen ; Portway, in Fladbury ; and Portneld, 
in Northfield; and there was Port Street, on the Anglo-Saxon 
boundaries of Lawern, in the parish of St. John, in Bedwardine ; 
the like, on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Salwarp ; and Portway, 
on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Wolverton; — all of which 
places are in Worcestershire. 

Portway, in Over Arley, in Staffordshire. — See p. 145. 

Portway, Portway Meadow, Upper Portway Meadow, and Lower 
Portway Meadow, in Monington-on-the-Wye, about four miles 
west of Kenchester (the site of the ancient Magna f;) Portway 
Orchard, Portway House, and the Portway, in Orleton, in 
Herefordshire. 

Portway Top, in Dymock, in Gloucestershire. 

* See p. 336, title " Badsey." 

+ See p. 286, &c., as to this Portway through Worcestershire. 



406 



tffespto I- 



STKEETS. 

Theee are Street Meadow and Street Leasow, in Wolverley 
Moors (otherwise Mours) Street, in Hales Owen ; Green Street, 
and Green Street Meadow, in Kempsey ; Green Street, Nether 
Street, and Little Street, in Hallow ; Green Street, and Hun 
ningham Street*, in Harvington; Salter Street Ground, in Ink 
berrow ; The Leys, next Kock Street, in Chaseley ; Wood Street 
in Bushley ; " The Streets," in Bromsgrove parish; Street Hill 
Tillage, in Claines ; Green Street, in Wickhamford ; Eagle 
Street, in Beoley. Pieces called Lower Street Leasow, and 
Upper Street Leasow, in the Foreign of Kidderminster ; Upper 
Street, and Upper Street Sling, in Doderhill ; Street Bank, in 
Shelsley Beauchamp ; Street Orchard, in Grimley ; Street-end 
Meadow, in Alvechurch ; Bye Street, in Birt's Morton ; Green 
Street, in iUfrick and Lulsley ; Street and Salt Street, in the 
Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Wolverton ; — all in Worcestershire. 

Streets-end, in Much Marcle ; Streets-end Orchard, Street- 
end Meadow, and Street-end Garden, in Ullingswick, in Here- 
fordshire. 

King Street, near Berrington, not far from Shrewsbury, in 
Shropshire. 

Streets Brook Coppice and Meadow, and Shirley Street 
Meadow, in Solihull, Co. Warwick. 

* See p. 340, referring to Heming's " Cartulary." 



407 



<&W« II- 



SITES OF ANCIENT VINEYARDS. 

As the name " Vineyard" occurs in almost every parish in the 
county (a few of which have previously been noticed), it would 
be curious to ascertain when vines were first planted in England, 
and how long they were continued. 

As the name sometimes occurs in the neighbourhood of the 
camps *, and in the lines of the ancient roads, perhaps they were 
first introduced by the Romans ; but, if so, it must have been 
during the latter part of their dominion here ; for, Tacitus in 
speaking of the temperature and happy situation of Britain, says, 
" there is nothing deficient in it but the olive and the vine, which 
only grow in hotter countries f." 

Dr. Nash, in Vol. i. of his " History," p. 307, in speaking of 
a place called The Vines, in Droitwich J, says, " Suetonius tells us 
that Domitian forbade the planting of any new vineyards, and 
destroyed at least half of the old ones in every province. The 
liberty of growing vines was restored by Probus, and I believe the 
Britons began to plant them about the year 280. Bede, who 
finished his " History" in 731, describing Britain, says, they 
grew vines in sundry places ; and, Richard of Cirencester, who 
died about 1400, makes the same observation. Perhaps their 
cultivation was neglected, when the inhabitants found they could 
purchase better flavoured wines at a low price from France, or 
employ their lands to more advantage by raising grain §. 

* See Stoke Bliss, p. 258, and Whitbourne, p. 213. 

+ See " Britannia Antiqua," by Aylett Sammes, published 1676, p. 5. 

J Several Roman relics have been found there.— See pp. 98 to 102. 

§ See Mr. Pegge's dissertation in the first volume of the " Axchaeologia," 
p. 344. Several autiquaries consider that the places called Vineyards refer to 
apple or other fruit orchards, and not to the vine ; but see before, pp. 98 to 102. 



408 

And in Vol. ii., " Corrections and Additions," p. 24, the Doctor 
says, " In William of Malmsbury's description of Thorney Abbey 
(' De gestis pontificum,' L. 4, p. 163, ed. Savil), there is a passage 
which seems plainly to prove that vines, for making wine, were 
planted in England ;" and " Camden says, one of the four 
wonders of Ely was a vinea." 

The Doctor also refers to various ancient documents relative to 
vineyards in Eipple, temp. Henry II. ; Fladbury, temp, circa 
Henry III. ; in Leigh, temp, circa Edward I. ; and also in 
Sedgbarrow and Elmley Castle. 

It is said that the sides of Towbury Hill, in Gloucestershire, 
were formerly covered with vines. 

There also is a hill by Evesham called Vineyard Hill, planted 
by Walter, the first Norman Abbot, which is noticed in " Domes- 
day," as the " New Vineyard:" — " Et vinea novella ibi." — Survey 
of Abbey land at Hampton, in " Domesday Book*." There are 
Vine Hill, and the Vineyards, in Dodenham ; The Vinne, Vinne 
Orchard, Big Vinne, Little Vinne, and Great Viney, in Abberley ; 
Vineyard, in Stoke Bliss ; The Vineyard, in Powick ; The Vine- 
yard, in Lower Mitton, in the parish of Kidderminster ; and also 
in a great many other places in the county. 

* See May's " History of Evesham," second edition, 1845, pp. 18, 84. 



409 



tf&apta $$ 



FOLK-LOBE. 

ON THE IGNIS FATUUS, OE WILL-O'-THE-WISP, 
AND THE FAIRIES. 

The following chapter was published as a separate pamphlet, 
in 1846, and is here reprinted with various additions. 

From the county of Worcester might be gleaned much more 
of the ancient folk-lore than is here presented to the reader, 
the researches of the Author having been chiefly directed to the 
particular legends , in reference to the ignis fatuus, and the tiny 
inhabitants of fairyland. 

In and near Worcestershire there are many fields and other places 
distinguished by the names of " Hoberdy," " Hob," " Puck," 
" Jack," and " Will." The origin of such appellations is, doubt- 
less, mainly to be sought in the popular fairy mythology ; and, 
in investigating the subject, the Author has collected many 
curious legends of the folk-lore, more particularly those that 
relate to, or may be explained by the natural phenomenon of the 
ignis fatuus. These it .is his present intention to lay before the 
reader. 

The following particulars of the ignis fatuus were published 
by me in the Worcester newspapers, of January 1840. 

" In the year 1835, I gave an account of a great many facts 
which I collected, and which are published in my pamphlet on the 
' Old Red Sandstone of Worcestershire and Herefordshire,' relative 
to that remarkable and interesting phenomenon called the ignis 
fatuus, or Will-o'-the-Wisp, but I never had the pleasure of seeing 
it myself until the night of the 31st of December, 1839, in two 
meadows and a stubble field on the south side of Brook House, 



410 

situated about a mile from Powiek village, near the Upton road. 
I had for several nights before been on the look out there for it, 
but was told by the inhabitants of the house that previously to 
that night it was too cold. I noticed it from one of the upper 
windows intermittingly for about half an hour, between ten and 
eleven o'clock, at the distance of from one to two hundred yards 
off me. Sometimes it was only like a flash in the pan on the 
ground; at other times it rose up several feet and fell to the 
earth, and became extinguished ; and many times it proceeded 
horizontally from fifty to one hundred yards with an undulating 
motion, like the flight of the green woodpecker, and about as 
rapid ; and once or twice it proceeded with considerable rapidity, 
in a straight line upon or close to the ground. 

" The light of this ignis fatuus, or rather of these ignes fatui, 
was very clear and strong, much bluer than that of a candle, and 
very like that of an electric spark, and some of them looked 
larger and as bright as the star Sirius ; of course, they look dim 
when seen in ground fogs, but there was not any fog on the 
night in question ; there was, however, a muggy closeness in the 
atmosphere, and at the same time a considerable breeze from the 
south-west. Those Will-o'- the- Wisps which shot horizontally 
invariably proceeded before the wind towards the north-east. 

" On the day before, namely, the 30th of December, there was 
a white frost in the morning ; but as the sun rose behind a 
mantle of very red and beautifully stratified clouds, it rained 
heavily (as we anticipated) in the evening ; and from that 
circumstance I conjectured that I should see the phenomenon in 
question on the next night, agreeably to all the evidence I had 
before collected upon the subject. 

" On the night of the 1st of January, 1840, I saw only a few 
flashes on the ground at the same place ; but on the next night 
(the wind still blowing from the south-west), I not only saw several 
ignes fatui rise up occasionally in the same locality many feet 
high, and fall again to the ground, but at about eight o'clock two 
very beautiful ones rose together a little more than one hundred 
yards from me, and about fifty yards apart from each other. The 
one ascended several yards high, and then fell in a curve to the 



411 

ground and vanished. The other proceeded in an horizontal 
direction for about fifty yards towards the north-east, in the same 
undulating and rapid manner as I have before described. I and 
others immediately ran to the spot, but did not see any light 
during our stay there. Both these nights were star-light, with 
detached clouds, and rather warm, but no fog. On the night of 
the 3rd of January the atmosphere was occasionally thick, but 
there was not any wind or fog, nor the slightest appearance 
of the phenomenon. 

" There was a very considerable quantity of rain on the 4th of 
January, but it ceased at five o'clock in the evening ; and from 
about seven till eight the meteors again appeared several times 
at the spot in question ; but as there was not any wind they went 
in various directions. 

" On the night of the 5th of January (which was star-light), I 
observed a few flashes on the ground at the turn of the evening, 
but it soon after became cold and frosty, and I saw no more of 
them either on that or the two succeeding nights. I did not 
see any lightning during the whole of those observations, which 
were made by others of the house as well as myself. — The soil of 
the locality is clay, with considerable beds of gravel interspersed 
thereon. 

" From all the circumstances stated, it appears probable that 
these meteors rise in exhalations of electric, and, perhaps, other 
matter, out of the earth, particularly in or near the winter 
season ; and that they generally occur a day or two after con- 
siderable rain, and on ' a change from a cold to a warmer 
atmosphere*." 

* An opinion has been entertained by some writers that " Will-o'-the-Wisp" 
is nothing more than a luminous insect (see " Saturday Magazine," Nov. 5, 
1836, p. 180, quoting Kirby and Spence) ; but from all that I have seen and 
collected upon the subject, the volume of light appears to be much too large 
to give any countenance to that opinion. The principal circumstance upon 
which the insect theory rests, is that a person who once upon a time chased 
a " Will-o' the-Wisp," caught a mole cricket in his hat: but the probability 
is, that in chasing one thing he caught another ; and, I believe, we have 
yet to learn whether mole crickets are luminous or not. 



412 



HOB. 



In an account which I published in 1835, relative to the 
appearance of the ignesfatul in Alfrick and its neighbourhood, I 
stated that they are called by the names of " Hoberdy's Lan- 
tern," " Hobany's Lantern," " Hob and his Lantern," " Jack- 
o '-Lantern," and " Will-o'-the-Wisp," in that district to this 
day*. 

In Hone's " Every-day Book," Vol. h\, p. 1371, we read — 
" That there is a custom very common in Cheshire, called Old 
Hob ; it consists of a man carrying a horses head, covered with 
a sheet, to frighten people. This frolic is usual between All- 
Souls' Day and Christmas." 

In the " Gentleman's Magazine," for January, 1845-j-, it is 
stated, that formerly there was a practice observed in Kent of 
" Hodening," or carrying a horse's head in procession at 
Christmas Eve. " Hodening " would here seem to be a cor- 
ruption for " Hobening." 

The words "hoberdy," "hobanyj," and "hob, "most probably, like 
the word "hobby §," are all derived from the Gothic word " hoppe||," 
which signifies a horse ; for we find that in various legends 
relative to sprites, &c, fiend horses form a prominent part; and 
as the movements of the ignes fatui resemble in a measure the can- 
tering motion of a horse IT, that may have been the reason why the 
names in question were given to these meteors**: and here we 
appear to have the true meaning of the word hobgoblin, that is, 

* Fairy rings abound there, as well as in various other parts of the county. 

+ See p. 2, " Minor Correspondence." 

\ There were in Anglo-Saxon times Obanleah and Obantreow. See " Codex 
Dip.," No. 20, and 20 App., Vol. vi.,p. 508. 

§ See Johnson's " Dictionary," title Hobby. 

|| And hence the words " hobby-horse " and " hobble." 

% A hobbling or awkward- gaited country lad is called a hoberdy-hoy. 

** It is said that the merciless wreckers on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon 
sometimes, in dark windy nights, attach a lantern to a lame horse, and then 
lead him along the coast, hoping that some passing vessel may mistake the 
undulating light of the lantern for that of another vessel, and thereby be 
decoyed on shore and wrecked. 



413 

a fiend horse, which afterwards became a very general name for 
sprites, in whatever shape they might appear. 

Horsemen who were stationed in particular places, to give 
notice of the approach of an enemy in the day-time, were anciently 
called " hobelers." See " Archseologia," Vol. i., p. 4. 

In the " Literary Gazette " for May 9, 1846, p. 426, the 
subject is also noticed as follows : — " Hobby, a little Irish nag 
for the hobelers, a kind of Irish knights, light horsemen ; hobelers 
in England, those whose tenure was by maintaining a light nag, 
to certify an invasion, or any peril by the sea-side." 

I am informed by Mr. Lower, of Lewes, that " Hobs Hoth " 
is one of the wildest sports on the South Downs of Sussex. 

The word " hoberd " is used as a satirical expression in the 
" Coventry Mysteries." (See the edition by J. 0. Halliwell, Esq., 
pp. 179, 325.) And it also occurs in the curious old poem on 
" The Man in the Moon," printed in Mr. Halliwell's " Introduc- 
tion to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream," p. 54. 

There are places called Hob's Hole and Hob's Hole Coppice, in 
Aston, in Blockley ; Hoberdy Hill, in Kempsey ; Hob Moor, in 
Chaddesley Corbett; Hob's Hole, in Offenham; Hob's Green, 
between Stourbridge and Hales Owen ; Hobden and Obden 
Brook, in Stoke Prior ; Hob Well-, in Great Malvern ; Upper 
Hobs, Farther Hob Lays, and Nether Hob Lays, in Sheriff's 
Lench ; Hobbis Meadow, Hobbis's, and Obbis Meadow, in 
Taxdebigg ; Hobby Kiss, in Warley Wigorn, in Hales Owen ; 
Hob Croft, Hob Hill, Hob Hill Meadow, Hob Hill Kough, and 
Little Hob Hill, in Beoleyf; Hobbis's Piece, in King's Norton ; 
Hob Acre, First Hob Ridge, Far Hob Ridge, Hob Redding, and 
Hob Croft, in NorthfieldJ; Upper Hoblets, Banky Hoblets, and 
Hob Acre, in Frankley ; Hoberton, in Alderminster ; Great 
Hobbis's Meadow and Lower Hobbs Meadow, in Tredino-ton ; 
and The Hob Nails, in Little Washborn. 



* See Gough's " Camden," Vol. ii., second edition, 1806, p. 487 ; but it 
has now lost its name. 

+ Also " Sling, near Elvins." 
I Also Witches' Rough. 



414 

In Sussex there is a place called Hobden. 

In Leicestershire there is Hobwell. 

In Warwickshire there are places called Hob Lane Piece, in 
Sheldon ; Hob's Hole and Little Hobs Hole, in Willington, in 
Barcheston ; Hobs Croft, in Ipsley; Hobbin's* Close, in Great 
Alnef; Hobbin's Close, on Copt Heath; and Hobs Moat, in 
Solihull. 

In the "Athenaeum" for Sept. 18th, 1847, p. 982, there is 
the following passage relative to Puck, alias Hob, having fre- 
quently assumed the shape of a horse. 

" In the characters, too, which Puck assumes when his object 
is to 

Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm ; 

for which purpose he says, 

Sometime a horse I'll he, sometime a hound, 
A hog, a headless hear, sometime a fire. 

he is, as unquestionably, only taking upon himself forms 

which the spirits of popular belief were constantly in the habit 
of assuming. How very ancient and far-spread is the belief in 
spirits or fairies assuming the form of a horse, we learn from 
Gervase of Tilbury, who, in a well-known and oft-quoted passage 
of his ' Otia Imperialia,' speaks of a spirit which, in England, 
was called Grant, and appeared in ' likeness of a filly foal.' 
' Est in Anglia quoddam demonum genus, quod suo idiomate 
Grant nominant ad instar pulli equini anniculi,' &c. ; and Mr. 
Keightley, in his ' Fairy Mythology,' has shown, from Grose, 
* that, in Hampshire, they still give the name Colt Pixy to a 
supposed spirit or fairy, which, in the shape of a horse, wickers, 
i.e., neighs and misleads horses into bogs, &c.,' — a prank which 
is exactly one of those that Puck plays, when he assumes the 
shape of a horse to make Oberon smile.' 1 

DOBBIES. 

The name of this species of fairies, most probably, like the words 
" hobby" and " hob," is derived from the before-mentioned Gothic 

* Hobin (French), a pacing horse, t Also Elvin's Close. 



415 

word " hoppe ;" for the word " dobbin," to this day, is a pro- 
vincial term for horse. The following account of the Dobbies is 
given in a list of ancient words at present used in the moun- 
tainous districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, printed in the 
" Archseologia," Vol. xvii., p. 144: — 

" Dobbies, demons attached to particular houses or farms. 
The ideas respecting them are the same as are held in Scotland 
with respect to Brownies. Though naturally lazy, they are said 
to make, in case of trouble and difficulty, incredible exertions for 
the advantage of the family, — as to stack all the hay, or house 
the whole crop of corn, in one night. 

" The farmers' horses are left to rest, and stags, or other wild 
animals, are supposed to fulfil the orders of the demon. 

" Some of the Dobbies are contented to stay in outhouses with 
the cattle, but others will only dwell among human beings. The 
latter are thought to be fond of heat ; but when the hearth cools, 
it is said they frisk and racket about the house, greatly disturbing 
the inmates. If the family should move, with the expectation of 
finding a more peaceable mansion, their hopes would be frus- 
trated ; for we are informed that the Dobby, being attached to 
the persons, not to the place, would remove also, and commence 
his revels in the new habitation. 

" The Dobbies residing in lone granges or barns, and near 
antiquated towers, bridges, &c, have a character imparted to 
them different from that of the house demons. Benighted 
travellers are thought to be much endangered by passing their 
haunts ; for, as grave legends assure us, an angry sprite will 
sometimes jump behind a horseman, and compress him so tightly, 
that he either perishes before he can reach his home, or falls into 
some lingering and direful malady." 

There are Dobbin's Hill and Little Dobbin's Hill, in the 
Berrow ; Dobbs Hill, in Eldersfield ; Dobbin's Meadow and 
Lower Dobbins, in Mathon ; Upper Dobbins and Lower 
Dobbins, in King's Norton ; and Dobies, in Chaddesley 
Corbett. 



416 



COB. 



This word also frequently occurs as a proper name, aud it most 
probably is a corruption of the Saxon word " cop" (or Dutch " kop"), 
and means the head, the top, a mound, or anything round*. 
Possibly, however, in some cases the word " cob" may be a cor- 
ruption of, or rather substituted for, the word " hob," in like 
manner as the latter sometimes is for the former." 

There are places called Cob's Orchard and Cob's Coppice, in 
Grimley ; Cob Nailf, in the parish of Bromsgrove ; Cob's Hole, 
in Abberley ; Cob's Field, in Northfleld ; Cob Hill, in Elders- 
field ; Cob's Orchard, Cob's Close, and Cob's Croft, in Doderhill ; 
Cob's Meadow, in Alvechurch ; and Cob's Croft, in Staunton. 

In Gloucestershire. — Cob's Hole, in Dymock. 

In Warwickshire. — Cob-dock Hill, near Wasperton. 

In Sussex. — Cob Court, and Cobden. 

In the north-east corner of Lincoln Castle " is a remarkable 
strong little building, called Cob's Hall J, appearing on the outside 
like a tower, and used as a dungeon §." The object for which it 
was built does not appear certain ; but on account of its circular 
form it most probably took its name from " cop," unless, indeed, 
it was a supposed fairy hall of Cob or Hob, and designated 
accordingly. 

It is stated in G-ough's " Camden," Vol. iii., p. 88, that, at 
Ross, in Herefordshire, there " is a cross called Cob's Cross, i. e., 
Corpus Christi, and a lane of the same name." But surely this 
derivation cannot be correct ; otherwise we should have, as above, 
Corpus Orchard, Corpus Coppice, Corpus Nail, Corpus Hole, &c. 

* A small horse is called a cob ; and hence, perhaps, the word " cub." 

f Hob-nail most probably is a corruption of cob -nail. There is a piece of 
land called " Hob-Irons" in King's Norton. The hob or cob-iron is a kind of 
dog or horse, standing upon three feet (two before, and one behind), with a 
round knob for the head : they are placed on each side of the hearth in the 
kitchens of old farm-houses to lay the wood upon, and also the spit, and serve 
instead of a grate. 

+ " Or Cobb Hall." 

§ See Gough's " Camden," Vol. ii., p. 36'5. 



417 

KNOP. 

We find in Thorns 's " Lays and Legends of Various Nations*," 
that " an old Irish fable states, that, in a Danish intrenchment 
on the road between Cork and Middleton, Knop, a fairy chief, 
kept his court ; where, often at night, travellers who were not 
well acquainted with the road were led astray by lights which 
were seen, and music which was heard, within the fort. 

" ' Knop, within thy cavemed hall, 

Where thou keepest thy fairy court, 
There, attendant on thy call, 

Airy chiefs and knights resort,' " &c. 

And in a note it is added : — " Knop (cnap) is the Irish for a 
hillock, a hump, a button, any small rotundity. — (See note on 
the word in ' Lays and Legends of Germany,' i., p. 5.) We 
doubt not that Knop is the proper name of the hump-conferring 
fairy chief, so notorious in English, Spanish, German, Italian, 
and Irish tradition. — (See Parnell's poem, ' In Britain's Isle 
and Arthur's Days ;' ' Quarterly Review,' No. 63, p. 206 ; 
* Redi's Letters ;' ' Tale of Knockgrafton, 1 in ' Fairy Legends of 
South Ireland,' &c") 

Dr. Johnson derives " knap" from the Welsh, as follows : — 
" Knap (cnap, Welsh, a protuberance), a protuberance ; a swel- 
ling prominence. — Bacon.'' 1 

There is a hillock called the Knap, in Alfrick. In a work 
published by the Rev. E. Duke, relative to the Druidical 
Temples of the County of Wilts, he considers that Knap Hill, 
which lies between Abury and Stonehenge, was derived from 
Kuephf, or Cneph, which, as well as Thoth, was the Egyptian 
or Phoenician name for Mercury, who, it is said, on the 
authority of Caesar and others, was worshipped at the Toot Hills 
as the guide over the hills and trackways \ ; but, as " Knap" in 
Welsh means a rising or hillock, these names most probably in 
general were derived from the latter source §. 

* P. 24, of the " Lays and Legends of Ireland," published in 1834. 
t There is a place called Knep, in Sussex. 
I See the account of Toot Hills, pp. 234, 235. 
§ See p. 193. 

E E 



418 



PUCK, HOB, ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW, ROBIN HOOD. 

The peasantry in Alfrick, and those parts, say that they are 
sometimes what they call Poake * ledden ; that is, that they are 
occasionally waylaid in the night by a mischievous sprite, whom 
they call Poake f, who leads them into ditches, bogs, pools, and 
other such scrapes, and then sets up a loud laugh, and leaves 
them quite bewildered in the lurch J. Now, it is natural enough 
for these simple-minded peasantry, when bewildered and misled 
in the night by a Jack-o'-Lantern, particularly should they pre- 
viously have had plenty of good old cider at some neighbouring 
farm-house, to fancy, as their ancestors, time out of mind, did 
before them, that any noise they might then hear, such as the 
hooting of an owl, the crowing of a cock, the bleating of a calf, 
the neighing of a horse, or the braying of an ass, is the laughter 
and ridicule of Poake, or Puck§. 

According to tradition, that interesting headland called Ose- 
berrow, or Osebury|| (vulgo Rosebury) Rock, which lies not far 
from Alfrick, and is situated upon the border of the river Teme, 
in Lulsley, opposite to Knightsford Bridge, was a favourite haunt 
of the fairies (vulgo pharises). It is said they had a cave there 
(which is still shown IF) ; and, that once upon a time, as a man 
and boy were ploughing in an adjoining field, they heard an 
outcry in the copse on the steep declivity of the rock ; and upon 
their going to see what was the matter, they came up to a fairy, 
who was exclaiming that he had lost his pick, or pick-axe : this, 
after much search, the ploughman found for him ; and, thereupon, 
the fairy said if they would go to a certain corner of the field 

* The adding of the letter a in the above word is a common vulgarism of 
the county. In like manner the peasantry say poarke or pearke for pork. 

•f- They also call the puff, or puck-ball fungus, by the name of pug-fiest 
(foist). 

% The same fancy also prevails in Ombersley, Upton Snodsbury, and other 
parishes. 

§ Being Pixy led is also a general fancy in Devonshire. 

|| By mistake named Woodbury Eock in the Ordnance Map. 

If And also a hole called the "Witches Oven." 



419 

wherein they had been ploughing, they would get their reward. 
They accordingly went, and found plenty of bread and cheese, 
and cider, on which the man feasted heartily ; but the boy was so 
much frightened that he would not partake of the repast. 

It also is said, that upon another occasion a fairy came to a 
ploughman in the same field, and exclaimed — 

" Oh, lend a hammer and a nail, 
Which we want to mend our pail." 

There likewise is a saying in the neighbourhood, that if a 
woman should break her peel (a kind of shovel used in baking 
bread), and should leave it for a little while at the fairies cave 
in Osebury Rock, it would be mended for her. 

In days of yore, when the church at Inkberrow was taken 
down and rebuilt upon a new site, the fairies, whose haunt was 
near the latter place, took offence at the change, and endeavoured 
to obstruct the building by carrying back the materials in the 
night to the old locality. At length, however, the church was 
triumphant, but for many a day afterwards the following lament 
is said to have been occasionally heard : — 

" Neither sleep, neither lie, 
For Inkbro's ting tangs hang so nigh *." 

The church is a large and handsome edifice, of mixed styles of 
architecture. It is supposed to have been built about five cen- 
turies ago, but has undergone much alteration. 

As a countryman was one day working in a field in Upton 
Snodsbury, he all of a sudden heard a great outcry in a neigh- 
bouring piece of ground, which was followed by a low, mournful 
voice, saying, " I have broke my bilk, I have broke my bilk ;" and 
thereupon the man picked up the hammer and nails which he had 
with him, and ran to the spot from whence the outcry came, where 
he found a fairy lamenting over his broken bilk, which was a kind 
of cross-barred seat ; this the man soon mended, and the fairy, to 

* The fairies made their couplet correspond as truly with the chimes as that 
celebrated one which foretold the fame of Whittington and his cat. In Thorpe's 
" Northern Mythology," Vol. ii., pp. 154, 155, several instances are given of 
the Trolls' hatred of bells, in Scandinavia. 



420 

make him amends for his pains, danced round him till he wound 
him down into a cave, where he was treated with plenty of 
biscuits and wine ; and it is said that from thenceforward that 
man always did well in life. I have been informed, by Mr. Lower, 
that there is a similar legend in Sussex relative to the fairies 
(vulgo pharises), in the neighbourhood of Alfriston, though the 
article broken was not a " bilk," but a " peel," and the reward 
was a beer-sop. 

The following extract, from Shakespeare's " Midsummer 
Night's Dream," Act ii., Scene 1, is much in point upon our 
subject : — 

" Fairy. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, 

Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite, 

Call'd Robin Good-fellow : are you not he, 

That fright the maidens of the villagery ; 

Skim milk ; and sometimes labour in the quern, 

And bootless make the breathless housewife churn ; 

And sometime make the drink to bear no barm ; 

Mislead night- wanderers, laughing at their harm ? 

Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, 

You do their work, and they shall have good luck : 

Are you not he ? 

" Puck. Thou speak'st aright ; 

I am that merry wanderer of the night. 

I jest to Oberon, and make him smile, 

When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, 

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal ;" &c. 

In Drayton's " Nymphidia*" the following lines occur in the 
account of Oberon 's chace after his wife, Queen Mab : — 

" Scarce set on shore, but there withal 
He meeteth Puck, which most men call 
Hob-goblin, and on him doth fall 

With words from frenzy spoken. 
' Hoh, hoh,' quoth Hob +, ' God save your grace ? 
Who dress'd thee in this piteous case ? 

* This was a subsequent production to the " Midsummer Night's Dream." 
(See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," p. 195.) 

+ He also is called by the name of " Hobgoblin" and " Hob" several times 
afterwards in that poem. 



421 

He thus that spoil'd my sov'reign's face, 
I would his neck were broken.' " 

In the " Illustrations of the Fairy Mythology of a Midsum- 
mer Night's Dream," by Mr. Halliwell, for the Shakespeare 
Society, the following account occurs in p. 127, in what is called 
the " Life of Robin Good-fellow- :" — 

" How Robin Good-fellow sekved a Clownish Fellow. 

" Presently Robin shaped himselfe like to the horse that the 
fellow followed, and so stood before the fellow : presently the 
fellow tooke hold of him and got on his backe, but long had he 
not rid, but with a stumble he hurl'd this churlish clowne to the 
ground, that he almost broke his necke ; yet took he not this for 
a sufficient revenge for the crosse answers he had received, but 
stood still and let the fellow mount him once more. 

" In the way the fellow was to ride was a great plash of water 
of a good depth; thorow this must he of necessity ride. No 
sooner was hee in the middest of it, but Robin Good-fellow left him 
with nothing but a pack-saddle betwixt his leggs, and, in the 
shape of a fish swomme to the shore, and ran away laughing, ho, 
ho, hoh! leaving the poore fellow almost drowned." 

And in pp. 132, 133:— 

" How Robin Good-fellow led a Company of Fellows out 
of their Wat. 

" A company of young men having beene making merry with 
their sweet hearts, were at their comming home to come over a 
heath. Robin Good-fellow, knowing of it, met them, and to make 
some pastime, hee led them up and downe the heath a whole 
night, so that they could not get out of it ; for he went before 
them in the shape of a walking fire, which they all saw and fol- 
lowed till the day did appeare ; then Robin left them, and at his 
departure spake these words : — 

" ' Get you home, you merry lads 5 
Tell your mammies and your dads, 

* It is supposed that Shakespeare was acquainted with this tract 



422 

And all those that newes desire, 
How you saw a walking fire*. 
Wenches, that do smile and lispe 
Use to call me Willy Wispe. 
If that you hut weary he, 
It is sport alone for me. 
Away : unto your houses goe, 
And He goe laughing ho, ho, hoh ! ' " 

Also, in p. 166, entitled, — 

" THE PRANKS OF PUCK+. 

" If any wanderers I meet, 

That from their night-sport do trudge home, 
With counterfeited voice I greet, 
And call them on with me to roam ; 

Through woods, through lakes, 
Through bogs, through brakes, 
O'er bush and brier with them I go ; 
I call upon 
Them to come on, 
And slide out laughing ho, ho, ho ! 

" Sometimes I meet them like a man, 

Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound ; 
And to a horse I turn me can J, 

To trip and trot about them round ; 
But if, to ride, 
My back they stride, 
More swift than wind away I go ; 
O'er hedge, o'er lands, 
Through pools, through ponds, 
I hurry laughing ho, ho, ho ! " 

The following is from the ballad of " Kobin Good-fellow." 
(See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," p. 164) :— 

* In Shakespeare's " King Lear," Act iii., Scene 4, there is the same 
expression. 

t This song is attributed to Ben Johnson. 

} Perhaps Shakespeare, in the " Midsummer Night's Dream," introduces 
Bottom, the weaver, with an ass's head, in comic allusion to the custom called 
Old Hob, before referred to. 






423 

M Sometimes he'd counterfeit a voyce, 

And travellers call astray, 
Sometimes a walking fire he'd he, 

And lead them from their way. 
Some call him Robin Good-fellow, 

Hob-gohlin, or mad Crisp, 
And some againe doe tearme him oft 

By name of Will the Wispe ; 
But call him by what name you list, 

I have studied on my pillow, 
I think the best name he deserves 

Is Robin the Good Fellow." 

From the above extracts it appears that Puck was sometimes 
called by the name of " Hob-goblin" and " Hob," therefore such 
names, and his pranks in the shape of horses, and his misleading 
persons in the night*, " in the shape of a walking fire," and the 
name that he obtained of " Willy Wispe," completely identify 
him as a personification of the ignis fatuus, under the before- 
mentioned names of " Hoberdy's Lantern," " Hobany's Lantern," 
and " Hob and his Lantern." 

In my juvenile days I remember to have seen peasant boys 
make, what they called a " Hoberdy's Lantern," by hollowing out 
a turnip, and cutting eyes, nose, and mouth therein, in the true 
moon-like style ; and having lighted it up by inserting the stump 
of a candle, they used to place it upon a hedge to frighten 
unwary travellers in the night. 

There is an opinion prevailing, that the name " Hob" and 
" Robin" are corruptions of the name Kobert ; but I would ask, 
whether it is not much more probable that the Roberts were, by 
an easy transition, nick-named from our fairy mythology, and 
that Robin was originally a corruption of Hob or Hobin. (See 
pp. 412, 413, 414.) 

There are legends relative to Robin Hood, which savour very 
much of both our fairy and Druidical mythology. 

The following curious account relative to the sprite in question 
has been kindly furnished me by a friend : — 

" Hob-thrush, Hobtrusse, the thirce or wicked demon, Ang.- 

* Causing them to be " Poake ledden." See p. 418. 



424 

Sax. ' thyrs,' a spectre or ignis fatuus, — Icelandic, ' thuss.' Grose 
gives us the term, but did not suspect its derivation. He says 
Hob-thrush is an hobgoblin, called sometimes Robin Goodfellow ; 
in the north Hob-thrust, or rather Hob o' t' hurst, a spirit sup- 
posed to haunt woods only. Bp. Kennett, in his ' Collections for 
a Dialectical Dictionary,' Lansd. MS., 1033, gives ' Athurse, an 
apparition, a goblin (Lancashire) ; a thurs house or thurse hole, 
a hollow vault in a rock or stony hill that serves for a dwelling- 
house to a poor family, of which there is one at Alveton, and 
another near Welton Mill, Co. Stafford.' Brochett, in his ' North- 
Country Glossary,' gives a curious note on the pranks of Hob- 
thrust. In a very early English Latin dictionary, dated 1433, I 
find ' hob trusse (jprepes, negocius), these Latin words imply 
busy, flying sprites, or goblins.' The French word, Lutin, is 
rendered by Cotgrave, ' a goblin, Robin Goodfellow, Hob-thrush, 
a spirit which playes reakes in men's houses a-nights ; Lonp- 
garou, a hobgoblin, hob-thrush, Robin Goodfellow, also a night- 
walker,' &c. Howitt, in ' Rural Life,' mentions there Hob- 
thrushes. Forby gives Hobby-lantern as the name of the Will-o'- 
Wisp in Norfolk, as does Moor for Suffolk ; and Akerman gives 
Hob-Ian tern as its name in Wiltshire." 

There are places called Upper Puck-hill and Lower Puck-hill, 
in Acton Beauchamp ; Puck Meadow, in Hallow ; Puck Hall 
Field and Far Puck Hall Piece, in Hartlebury ; Puck Croft, in 
Stock and Bradley ; Upper and Lower Puck Close, in Fecken- 
ham ; Pack Meadow, in Oldberrow ; Puck Hill and Puck Hill 
Corner, in Himbleton ; Puck Croft, in Powick ; Puck Lane, in 
Stoke Prior ; Pug's Hole- Allotment, in the parish of Broms- 
grove ; Great and Little Puckall, in Elmley Lovett ; Tuck-hill, 
Leasow, and Upper and Lower Tuck-hill, in Hanley Child f; 
Upper, Middle, and Lower Tuck Mill Piece, in the parish of 
Upton-upon- Severn ; Tuck Mill, near Broadway ; Puck Pit 
Farm, alias Tapenhall, in Claines ; Puck Piece, in Abbot's 

* See p. 418, as to Pug-fiest or Puck-foist. 

f Also Impy Orchard and Pooten's Hole. There is likewise Imp Orchard 
in Clifton-on-Teme. Impey, The Himpey, Long Cross Himpey, and Long 
Himpey, in Alvechurch. 



425 

Lench, in Fladbury ; Pucklins Meadow, Big, Little, Upper, 
Middle, and Lower Pucklins, and Pucklins Lane, in King's 
Norton ; Puck Dole, in the Berrow ; Pouk Lane, in Upper 
Sapey ; Poke Meadow, in Shelsley Beauchamp ; Puck Pit, in 
Abberton ; Poke Meadow and Puckley Green Farm, in 
Martley. 

In Staffordshire, Powkmore Hill, in Amblecoate, in Old Swin- 
ford ; and Powk's Lane, near Rowley. 

In Gloucestershire, Pokil, Pokyl, or Puckle Church hundred 
and parish-, Puckmore Headland, and Puckrup, near Towbury 
Hill, in Twyning; and Puckmore and Puckmore 's Hitch, in 
Dymock. 

In Herefordshire, Puckmoor's Orchard, in Much Marcle ; and 
Powk House, in Stoke Bliss. 

In Warwickshire, Pucknell's Close, in Solihull. 

In Hertfordshire, Puckerich. 

In Somersetshire, Puckington. 

In the Isle of Wight, Puck, Pool, Puck's (yulgo Pook's) Farm, 
and Puckaster Cove. 

In Wales, the Devil's Bridge (Cwm Pwcca), where the goblin 
leads the unsuspicious night traveller over the steep precipice 
into the Clydach Llanelly. 

In Sussex, a weed very prejudicial to corn is called Pook or 
Puck needlef. It goes by the name of Beggar's {yulgo Bagger's) 
needle, in Worcestershire. 

It is stated in the "Literary Gazette" for March 28, 1846, 
that, " Akin to Puck are the Dutch ' Spook,' the German 
' Spuck,' the Swedish ' Spoke,' and the Danish ' Spogelese' — ghost 
— apparition — with the verbs formed from them. The Germans 
and Swedes say, ' Es spuckt imhause,' and ' Det spokar i huset,' 
for ' The house is haunted.' What is commonly called a puff-ball 

* " This place was once the residence of several of our Saxon kings." — (See 
"Wright's Gazetteer.") 

f In Thorpe's " Northern Mythology," Vol. i., pp. 180, 182, it is stated that 
the God Loke's mother was "Laufey (leafy isle), or Nal (needle); i. e., the 
leaflet of the fir ; " and that " trees with acicular leaflets, like the fir, cedar, 
yew, and the like, are called needle trees." 



426 

is properly Puck-ball or Puck-fist ; the ' little folks ' are well 
known to have a great liking for the fungus tribe." 

In the " Athenaeum" for 9th Oct., 1847, p. 1054, it is stated 
that " Paeccan or Pseccian (Anglo-Saxon) signifies to deceive by 
false appearances, to delude, to impose upon." 

The following passage relative to Puck, and the derivation of 
the name, is taken from Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall's very interest- 
ing work on "Ireland; its Scenery, Character," &c, Vol. i., 
p. 108, &c.: — 

" Of the malignant class of beings composing the Irish fairy 
mythology — and it is creditable to the national character that 
they are the least numerous, — the Pooka* excels and is pre- 
eminent in malice and mischief. In form he is a very Proteus — 
generally a horse, but often an eagle. He sometimes assumes 
the figure of a bull, or becomes an ignis fatuus. Amongst the 
great diversity of forms at times assumed by him, he exhibits a 
mixture or compound of the calf and goat. Probably it is in 
some measure owing to the assumption of the latter figure that 
he owes his name, " puc" being the Irish for a goat. Golding, in 
his translation of Ovid, describes him by name, in a character of 
which the goat forms a component part : — 

' The country where Chymsera, that same Pouk, 
With goatish hody, lion's head and breast, and dragon's tail,' &c. 

"And Spenser has the following lines : — 

' Ne let the Pouke, nor other evil spirit, 
Ne let mischievous witches with their charms, 
Ne let hobgoblins, names whose sense we know not, 
Fray us with things that be not.' 

" The Pouke or Pooka means literally the evil one : ' playing 
the puck,' a common Anglo-Irish phrase, is equivalent to * playing 
the devil.' 

" There are many localities, favourite haunts of the Pooka, and 

* Or Phooka. 



4^7 

to which he has given his name, as Drohid-a-Pooka, Castle Pook, 
and Carrig-a-Pooka. The island of Melaan, also, at the mouth of 
the Kenmare river, is a chosen site whereon this malignant spirit 
indulges his freaks. It is uninhabited, and is dreaded by the 
peasantry and fishermen, not less because of its gloomy, rugged, 
and stern aspect, than for the tales of terror connected with it. 
The tempest wails fearfully around its spectre-haunted crags, and 
dark objects are often seen flitting over it in the gloom of the 
night. Shrill noises are heard, and cries, and halloos, and wild 
and moaning sounds ; and the fishermen, benighted or forced 
upon its rocks, may often behold, in the crowding groups which 
flit around, the cold faces of those long dead — the silent tenants, 
of many years, of field and wave. The consequence is, that 
proximity to the island is religiously avoided by the boats of the 
country after sunset ; and a bold crew are they who, at nightfall, 
approach its haunted shores. 

" The great object of the Pooka seems to be to obtain a rider, 
and then he is in all his most malignant glory. Headlong he 
dashes through briar and brake, through flood and fell, over 
mountain, valley, moor, or river, indiscriminately ; up or down 
precipice is alike to him, provided he gratifies the malevolence 
that seems to inspire him. He bounds and flies over and beyond 
them, gratified by the distress, and utterly reckless and ruthless 
of the cries, and danger, and suffering, of the luckless wight who 
bestrides him. As the ' Tinna Geolane, 1 or Will-o'-the-Wisp, he 
lures but to betray; like the Hanoverian 'Tuckbold*,' he de- 
ludes the night wanderer into a bog, and leads him to his destruc- 
tion in a quagmire or pit. Macpherson's " Spirit of Loda" is 
evidently founded on the tradition of the Pooka; and in the 
" Fienian Tales" he is repeatedly mentioned as the ' Puka (grua- 
gach, or hairy spirit) of the Blue Valley.' 

" The English Puck is a jolly, frolicksome, night-loving rogue, 
full of archness, and fond of all kind of merry tricks ; ' a shrewd 
and knavish spirit, as Shakespeare has it. But he is, nevertheless, 

* See p. 424, as to Tuck Hill, &c. In Thorpe's " Northern Mythology," 
Vol. iii., p, 158, it is stated that the North German " Tiickboldc " is identical 
with the Jack-o' -Lantern. 



4^8 

very probably in his origin the same as the Irish Pooka ; as, 
besides the resemblance in name, we find he has not at all times 
sustained his laughter-loving character, but, on the contrary, 
exhibited unquestionable proof of his Irish affinity in descent. 
For this we have the poetical authority of Drayton, in his 
" Polyolbion :" — 

' This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt ; 
Still walking like a ragged colt, 
And oft out of a bush doth bolt, 

Of purpose to deceive us ; 

And, leaving us, makes us to stray, 

Long winter nights, out of the way ; 

And when we stick in mire and clay, 

He doth with laughter leave us.' 

" The early English adventurers imported to the Irish shores 
their softened version of the native Pooka under his Saxon appel- 
lation of Puck, and have left his name to Puck's Rock, near 
Howth*, and Puck Castle, a romantic ruin in the county of 
Dublin." 

The narrative continues with the detail of some practical jokes 
of the Pooka f, which must have been far from pleasant to his 
riders. 

Thorns tells us, in the " Lays and Legends of Ireland j," that 
" there can be no doubt that Puck, or Pouke, means the devil ; 
and in Ireland that name is also variously localised. The form 
under which the Irish Puck, or Pooka, most commonly appears — 
for it seems to have the power of assuming forms at will — is that 
of a goat, a form in which the usual attributes of horns and 
cloven feet are preserved, as well as the similarity of name ; ' boc ' 
(usually pronounced puck) being the Irish for a goat. A cele- 
brated waterfall of the Liffey, in the county of Wicklow, is called 
Poule-a-Phooka, or Phooke's Cavern. The Castle of Carrig-a- 
Phooka, not far from Macroom, and the Castle Pooke, situated 
between Doneraile and the ruins of Kilcoleman, where Edmund 
Spenser wrote his " Fairy Queen," are in the county of Cork." 

* On the north side of the Bay of Dublin. 
+ See also Vol. ii., p. 200. J Pp. 48, 49. 



429 

A passage relative to the derivation of the word " Puck" will 
be found in the " Archaeological Journal," Vol. i., pp. 144, 
145, under the title, " Observations on the Primeval Antiquities 
of the Channel Islands, by F. C. Lukis, Esq,," where the author, 
after referring to the derivation of the word " cromlech," speaks 
of the names " pouque " and " laye," or " lee," as occurring in 
those islands, " (from whence Puck, an elf, or dwarf,) meaning 
the place of the fairy." 

ROBIN HOOD. 

In the account of Robin Hood given in pp. 130 to 135, he is 
considered to have been contemporary with the battle of Evesham, 
temp. 1265 ; and the " Scottish Chronicle*" of Fordun and 
Bower, and the " Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode," are quoted as 
authorities. Since that part of this work was printed, the Rev. 
Joseph Hunter has published No. 4 of his " Critical and His- 
torical Tracts," entitled, " The Great Hero of the Ancient Min- 
strelsy of England, Robin Hood. His period, real character, &c, 
investigated, and perhaps ascertained." Mr. Hunter endeavours 
to identify him with one " Robyn Hode," who entered the service 
of Edward II. a little before Christmas 1323, and continued 
therein somewhat less than a twelvemonth ; and considers that 
he was one of the vanquished at the battle of Boroughbridge, in 
1321-2. In support of this view, Mr. Hunter joins Mr. Wright 
in regarding the passage in the " Scoti Chronicon," relative to 
Robin Hood, " as part of the addition which was made to the 
genuine Fordun in the fifteenth century." 

Now, the above point is more with the critic than the collector ; 
but as I considered, at the time I made the quotations from For- 
dun and Bower, that those passages were genuine, I certainly 
was struck with the remarkable fact that so many places in the 
north and north-east part of Worcestershire, in and about Fecken- 
ham Forest and bordering upon Evesham, bear the names Robin 

* It is as well to remark that the person described as Duguil in " Old 
England," as contemporary with Eobin Hood (see p. 132 of this work), is 
called Daynil in the above " Chronicle." 



430 

and Robin Hood* ; and I was therefore led to the conjecture 
that they were so named after the people's darling, upon the dis- 
afforesting of those lands by Edward I., in 1299 (being about 
thirty-four years after the battle of Evesham), particularly as 
those lands had been tyrannically wrested from the people by his 
great-grandfather, Henry II., and added to the forest. 

JACK-O'-LANTERN. 

In addition to what has been already said this name appears 
to be familiar in Scandinavia and North Germany, as well as in 
England. In Mr. B. Thorpe's " Northern Mythology," Vol. ii., 
p. 97, it is stated among the Swedish traditions, that Jack-with- 
a-Lantern " was a mover of land-marks," and " is doomed to 
have no rest in his grave after death, but to rise every midnight, 
and, with a lantern in his hand, to proceed to the spot where 
the land-mark had stood which he had fraudulently removed," 
&c. And in Vol. iii., p. 158, among the North German tra- 
ditions, it is stated that Jack-o'- Lanterns " are frequently said 
to be the souls of unbaptised children that have no rest in the 
grave, and must hover between heaven and earth f." The name 
Jack well suits the tricksy spirit in question, for generally 
speaking it means a cunning fellow, who can turn his hand 
to any thing j, as " Jack of all Trades," " Jack and the 
Bean Stalk," " Jack the Giant Killer," " Jack in the Green," 
" Jack Pudding," &c. ; the latter means a zany, a merry Andrew, 
a buffoon §. 

According to some writers, " Jack in the Green " is a type or 

* I observe Mr. Hunter considers that many of the places so named were 
places to which the persons in after times called Robin Hood's men " were 
wont to resort when they went out a-Maying, or to try their skill with the 
bow." There is another subject which it is to be hoped Mr. Hunter will treat 
upon, namely, the disputed " Itinerary " of Richard of Cirencester. 

+ This appears to be the more modern idea. There is a fancy in Devon- 
shire that the Yell Hounds and Pixies are the souls of unbaptised children. 
See the account of " Mathon,"' pp. 255, 256, and " Pixie," infra. 

\ Like " Black Jack," hereafter mentioned. 

§ " Spring-heeled Jack " is still in the memory of most of our readers. 



431 

remnant of the Druidical assistants. Professor Burnett* also 
associates the curious basket of garlands, with which he his 
now sometimes invested on May-day, with the Druidical hunt 
for the mistletoe. 

With respect to the legend of " Jack the Giant Killer," it 
appears, partly at least, to be " derived either directly or in- 
directly from a common source, with a story of the Giant 
Skrymner and the Scandinavian demi-god Thor, which is related 
in an ancient specimen of the literature of the north of Europe, 
the ' Edda of Snorro.' " (See Chambers's " Edinburgh Journal," 
for February 1844, p. 68.) 

There are places called Jack Field and Jack Field Coppice, in 
Mathon ; Jack Stile Acres, in Grimley ; Jack's Croft, in the 
parish of Bromsgrove ; Jack-butts, in Sutton, in the parish 
of Tenbury ; Jack's Close, in Newland, near Great Mal- 
vern ; Jack Meadow, in Bushock ; In Jack, Upper Jack, 
Lower Jack, Jack Meadow, and Jack, in the Berrow ; Jack Piece, 
Middle Jack Piece, and Far Jack Piece, in Northfield ; Jack's 
Stile, in the Foreign of Kidderminster; and Jack Leasow, 
in Frankley ; Jack Field, Little Jack, and Old Jack, in Hasbury, 
in Hales Owen. 

In Warwickshire. — Jack Ground and Jack's Croft, in Ipsley ; 
and Jack Lands, in Solihull. 

In Somersetshire, not far from Kilmington Church, there is a 
small oval camp called Jack's Castle, supposed to be Danish f. 

WILL. 

" Will-with-a-Wisp," probably is a personification derived from 
the Saxon word " wile," a deceit, a fraud, a trick, a stratagem, 
&c, and the Swedish word " wisp," a small bundle, as of hay or 
straw, ignited | . 

* See his " Amoenitates Quemeae." 

f See Gough's " Camden," Vol. i. 

t Some of our readers will remember an interesting picture, exhibited 
several years back by the Royal Academy, of " Will-o'-the-Wisp," in which a 
goblin horse was depicted going stealthily over a moor or bog, in the night,. 



432 

In Parnell's " Fairy Tale*" he is mentioned as follows : — 

" Then Will, who bears the wispy fire 
To trail the swains among the mire," &c. 

The common phrase " Wicked Will " probably refers to the 
same personage : we find that 

" Wicked Will kill'd the dead owl f with the wash beetle." 

And also that 

" Wicked Willy Wilkin J 
Kiss'd the maids a-milking." 

Now, from the most veritable accounts which we have of the 
fairies, we learn that kissing the maids was no uncommon trick 
of theirs, and no doubt they considered the milking time as the 
best opportunity for them to do it ; and had they merely stolen a 
kiss, perhaps no great harm had been done, but they occasionally 
stole the milk also, for it is said that they sometimes used to milk 
the cows at night §, and checked their yielding milk at morn, and 
prevented the butter forming in the churn. 

In this account of " Will," we fancy we see pretty clear 
traces of our old friend, Puck ; and we have it from Puck's own 

ridden by a fiend, representing Will, looking backwards, and holding up a 
lighted wisp in his hand, in a most decoying manner. 

* See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," p. 306. 

+ Meaning the screech owl, the warner of death. 

{ In Percy's " Keliques of Ancient English Poetry," sixth edition, Vol. i., 
p. 84, it is stated that the most diligent inquirers after ancient English rhymes 
find the earliest they can discover in the mouths of the Norman nobles, such 
as that of Eobert Earl of Leicester, and his Flemings, in 1173, temp. Henry II. 
(little more than a century after the Conquest), recorded by Lambarde, in his 
" Dictionary of England," p. 36 : — 

" Hoppe Wyliken, hoppe Wyliken, 
Ingland is thine and myne," &c. 

§ In Hone's " Every Day Book," Vol. i., p, 594, it is stated that in Ireland 
a ceremony is practised during the Beal-tine on May-eve, of making the cows 
leap over lighted straw or faggots, " to save the milk from being pilfered by 
the good people," meaning the fairies. 



» 433 

mouth — aye, and as far back as about Shakespeare's time, that 
he used to be called " Willy Wispe*." 

In an account of " Manners and Customs of the Irish Pea- 
santry," in the- " Saturday Magazine f," it is stated that 
" beetling linen by the side of a rocky stream, that murmurs 
through an unfrequented glen, is represented as a favourite, or 
rather common, female fairy occupation, where they chaunt wild 
and pathetic melodies, beating time with their beetles." 

There are places called Wilkin's Pasture, Wilkin's Field, and 
Little Wilkin, in Pendock: Big Will- tree and Upper and Lower 
Will-tree, in Grimley ; and Wilkin Close, in the parish of 
Bromsgrove. 

In Gloucestershire, Will Fields, in Alvechurch; in Mont- 
gomeryshire, Brin Wilkin Wood and Brin Wilkin Meadow, in 
Church Stoke. 

In the " Annalia Dvbrensia upon the yearly celebration of Mr. 
Piobert Dover's Olympic Games upon Cotswold Hills," published 
in 1636, there are the following lines, in Mr. Robert Durham's 
address : — 

" As Phoebus is Heaven's curl'd-pate chariter, 
And Twinkling J Will, the Northern Waggoner." 

With respect to this waggoner, there is an allusion to him in 
Thorpe's " Northern Mythology §," among the North German 
traditions, as follows : — 

" The Night Raven, or Eternal Waggoner. 

" In the night, the ' hor, hor,' or ' hrok, hrok," of the night 
raven is frequently to be heard. This bird is much larger than 
the common raven, and almost as large as a full-grown hen. By 

* See p. 422 . There is " Wisp Hill," in Roxburghshire, and a hill called 
" Brown Willy," in Cornwall. Now, whether the name Brown in this instance 
has reference to the Scotch fairies called " Brownies," I cannot pretend to say. . 

f Vol. viii., February 13th, 1836, p. 66. 

X See the account of " Pinket," p. 435. 

§ Vol. hi., pp. 97, 98. 

F F 



434 

some he is called the Eternal Waggoner, who also say that lie 
wished, for his share of heaven, to drive to all eternity ; and he 
accordingly drives without cessation, sitting on the middle horse 
of the celestial wain, of which the four large stars behind are the 
four wheels, hut the three foremost stars, which stand in a 
crooked line, the three horses ; and the little star over the middle- 
most, is the Eternal Waggoner. He guides the horses ; and as 
the waggon always goes in a circle, they do not stand in a right 
line with one another, but in a curve, being always on the turn. 
Before midnight, the waggon is said to be going out, when the 
pole inclines upwards; and after midnight it goes home, and 
then the pole inclines downwards." 

ELF. 

In the Introduction to the " Tale of Tamlane," in the " Min- 
strelsy of the Scottish Border," by Sir Walter Scott, he says : — 
" The word ' elf,' which seems to have been the original name 
of the beings afterwards denominated fairies, is of Gothic origin, 
and probably signified simply a spirit of a lower order." 

In a paper upon this subject, in the " Athenaeum" for Octo- 
ber 2nd, 1847, p. 1030, it is stated that " our English name 
' elf ' is the same as the Ango-Saxon ' alf,' the old High-German 
and middle High- German ' alf,' the old Norse ' alfr,' and the 
Gothic 'albs;' and that corresponding with our English ' elf,' in 
the plural ' elves,' we have the Swedish 'elf' in the plural, 
1 elfvar ' masculine, and ' elf v or ' feminine ; the Danish ' elv ' 
and ' elve ' in the plural. 

" This word ' elf ' has, however, undergone some strange 
modifications. In Beowulf we read of 

' Eotenas, and Ylfe, and Orcneas *. 

' Eotensf, and Elves, and Ores.' " 

In Alfrick there is a place called Halvens, or HalvinsJ, and 
there are two wells adjoining each other on the side of the road 

* See p. 9 of Mr. Kemble's edition. 

+ Or Titans.— (See Kemble's " Saxons in England," Vol. i., pp. 379, 381.) 

I Probably Elvins or Elfvins. 



435 

between the Upper House and Bewell, or Buall, which are called 
Oughton Wells*, most probably a corruption of Eoten Wells; 
for the peasantry say outing for hooting. They are situated just 
below Norgrove, or Hoar Grove f, and used to be much esteemed 
by the peasantry; and, although close together, their springs 
must come from opposite directions, as the water of the northern 
one is clear ; while that of the southern one is of a milky hue, 
caused probably by its coming through a stratum of what is called 
Walker's j or Fuller's clay, which in some places appears in the 
neighbourhood. The difference in the colour of these two springs, 
and the supposed virtues of that of a milky hue, as a remedy for 
weak or inflamed eyes, most probably tended to throw an air of 
mystery about these twin wells §. 

There is a place called Elvins, in Beoley ; and in Warwick- 
shire, Elvins Close, in Great Alne ; and, Upper, Far, and Lower 
Elkin, in Solihull. 

This latter name (Elkin) appears to connect our fairy names 
with the more ancient mythology, and means either the little 
gods, or of kin to the gods ||. 

PINKET. 

The ignis fatuus is called Pinket in the parish of Badsey. 
This name, perhaps, is derived from the Dutch word " pinken," 
which means to wink with the eyes, and alludes probably to the 
twinkling motion of these meteors. 

A fairy of the name of Pinck was one of the waiting maids of 
Queen MablT. 

* They are more generally known by the appellation of " Hayward's 
Wells," a person of that name having probably at some time occupied the 
neighbouring cottage. 

+ See p. 246. 

J A Walker, or Fuller. — See Droitwich, p. 100. 

§ That the Anglo-Saxons were addicted to well-worship, see Kemble's 
" Saxons in England," Vol. i., p. 524. 

|| See the account of Elbury Hill, p. 225. The place there noticed as 
Allsborough Hill is also called Alesborough, and Aylesborough. — See infra. 

Tf See Drayton's " Nymphidia ;" and also Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," 
p. 200. 



436 

There are Pink Field, and Pink's Green, in Beoley*, in this 
county ; Pink's Field, and Pink's Meadow, in Dymock, Co. 
Gloucester ; Pinxton parish, in the counties of Derby and Not- 
tingham; and two mines called " The Pink," in Cornwall f. 

PIXIES, 

AND 

WISH OR WISKED HOUNDS. 

Fairies are called pixie in some parts, particularly in 
Devonshire. 

There is Pykesham, or Pixam, in Powick ; Picke-fields, on the 
border of Bordesley, in Tardebig ; and Little Pickes, and Great 
Picks, in Upton-on-Severn. 

In Devonshire, the Pixies' Cave or Grot, at Dartmoor; and the 
Pixies' Rock, on the Yealm River. 

In Herefordshire, an eminence called Pixall, or Pixhill, near 
Tedstone Court ; and Pixley, Pikesley, or Pykesleye {, near 
Ledbury. The following lines are taken from Clobery's " Divine 
Glimpses," 1659, p. 73 :— 

" Old countrey folk, who pixie-leading fear, 
Bear bread about them to prevent that harm §." 

" Pretorius informs us that a member of the German House 
of Alveschleben received a ring from a Nixie, to which the future 
fortunes of his line were to be attached. — Antherpodemus Plu- 
tonicus, i., p. 113."— (See the Editor's note to the Introduction 
to the " Tale of Tamlane," in the edition of " Scott's Minstrelsy 
of the Scottish Border," published in 1833, Vol. ii., p. 277. 

Mrs. Bray's " Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy," Vol. i., 
informs us that the peasantry at Dartmoor believe that the pixies 
are the souls of infants who died before receiving the rite of 
baptism ||. 

* See the Ordnance Map. 

+ Can this have any reference to what are called " Knockers " in mines. 
I " Extracta particula de Gestis Abbatum," in Har. MS. 376, British 
Museum. 

§ See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," Introduction, p. 17. 
j| Also see p. 430. 



437 

South-east of Pixhill, in Tedstone Delamere, there are Wish- 
moor, and Inksmoor, near Sapey Bridge in Whitbourn. — (See 
an account of the Wish*, or Wisked, or Spectre Hounds, of 
Dartmoor, in the " Athenaeum," No. 1013, for March, 27, 1847, 
p. 334 f.) 

The writer, R. J. K., in the " Athenaeum" for October 24, 
1846, p. 1093, says, " The pixies' name has been sought in the 
Islandic, ' Puke,' a demon, a fairy. It is probably more imme- 
diately connected with the Welsh, ' Pwc,' a goblin, although I 
cannot find such a root in the old Cornish vocabularies. Puck, 
the ' tricksy spirit' of the fairies, and the Irish Phooka, are both 
from a cognate root." 

MAB. 

" Oh then, I see Queen Mab has been with you J." 

So said the immortal bard, and I was curious to ascertain 
whether her majesty had honoured the fair midlands with her 
presence. That she has done so will appear as follows : — There 
is a piece of ground near the village of Upton Snodsbury, in 
Worcestershire, called Mob's Close, or Mop's Close ; and an 
orchard at Hales-end, near Herold's Copse, in Cradley, in Here- 
fordshire, adjoining the western side of Old Storage, in Wor- 
cestershire, called Mobbled Pleck, meaning Mab-led Pleck§, or 
a plot where any one was liable to be Mab-led. 

" The name Mab appears to have been at one time current in 
Warwickshire, where, as we learn from a note of Sir Henry 



* Probably from the Anglo-Saxon " Wicca," a witch. In Kemble's " Saxons 
in England," Vol. L, p. 346, it is stated, that " in Devonshire to this day all 
magical or supernatural dealings go under the common name of Wishtness : 
can this have any reference to Woden's name, " Wysc ?" And added, that there 
are " Wishanger, (Wischangra, or Woden's Meadow) ; one, about four miles 
south-west of Wanborough in Surrey, and another near Gloucester," &c. &c. 

f Also see the account of Bromsgrove, p. 123. 

* Romeo and Juliet. 

§ Pleck is a common term in the country for a plot or small piece of 
ground. 



438 

Ellis, in his edition of Brand, niabled, pronounced mobled, 
signifies led astray by a Will-o'-the-Wisp *." 

The place in Cradley was, in early times, called Little Pleck, 
afterwards Moblee Pleck, and subsequently Mobbled Pleck f, as 
appears by the title deeds of Eichard Yapp, Sen., Esq., the owner 
of the estate. 

Mr. Thorns, in a communication to the " Athenaeum" for Nov. 
1847 J, observes that Mah is derived from the Celtic; Mabh 
in Celtic mythology being the chief of the Genii ; and " no 
earlier instance of Mab being used as the designation of the 
fairy queen, has hitherto been discovered than that of Shake- 
speare in his Romeo and Juliet." He afterwards adds, " that 
Shakespeare learned that Mab was the name of the fairy queen 
from the folk-lore of his own time." 

TOM THUMB, PATCH, GRIM, SIB, TIB, LICKE, LULL, 
HOP, DRYP, PIP, TRIP, PINCK, PIN, TICK, TIT, 
WAP, and WIN. 

These are all names of the fairies. Tom Thumb § is the 
thaumlin (that is Little Thumb) of Scandinavian fiction ; a 
regular dwarf or duergar|| of the mythology of that country H. 

In Drayton's " Nymphidia " he is noticed as follows : — 

" When by Tom Thum, a fairy page**," &c. 
In the " Life of Robin Good-fellow," are the following lines :— 

" Pinch and Patch, Gull and Grim, 
Goe you together ; 
For you can change your shapes 
Like to the weather. 

* Popular Antiquities, Vol. iii., p. 218, ed. 1841. 

f It is called " Mobblede Plecks Orchard," in the apportionment to the 
tithe commutation. 
{ Page 1150. 

§ There is " Thumb's Close," in Doderhill. 

|| A small person is, by way of ridicule, called a " durgie " in these parts 
^1 See Chambers's " Edinburgh Journal ," for February 1844, p. 68. 
** Also see Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," p. 199. 



439 

Sib and Tib, Licke* and Lull, 

You have trickes too ; 
Little Tom Thumb that pipes + 

Shall goe betwixt you J." 

In Drayton's " Nymphidia " it is stated that the under- 
mentioned fairies formed the retinue of Queen Mab : — 

" Hop, and Mop, and Dryp so clear, 
Pip, and Trip, and Skip that were 
To Mab, their sovereign, ever dear, 

Her special maids of honour ; 

Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin, 

Tick, and Quick, and Jil, and Jin, 

Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win, 

The train that wait upon her §." 

In connection with the above fairy names I have collected the 
following from the neighbouring and other counties. Tib's Lands, 
near Bringsty or Brinksty Common, in Herefordshire ; Tib's 
Hall, near Wiggins Hall, in Warwickshire ; Tibthorp, in York- 
shire ; Tibshelf, not far from Pinxton, Cos. Derby and Notting- 
ham ; Tib Brook, near Manchester ; Wapley Hill, in Hereford- 
shire (which contains a camp called the Warren); Pinswell 
Camp, in Gloucestershire ; Pinwell, in Sussex ; Grinisdyke, in 
Hants; and a remarkable place called Grimspound, at Dartmoor 1 1. 

The following are in this county : — Pippin Hill, in Acton 
Beauchamp ; Tibb Bibbin, south of Tardebig ; Tibley, in Bir- 
lingham; Pin's Green, by Newland Green, in the parish of 
Great Malvern; Pennils or Pinhill, in Alvechurch; Tickridge 
Piece, in Bromsgrove ; Great Tickridge, in Hanley Castle ; 
Ticknell, or Tickenhill, near Bewdley; Tidsley Wood % by Alls- 

* There is Lick Hill between Stagbury Hill and Lower Mitton. 

+ " The Swedes delight to tell of the Stromkerl, or boy of the stream, who 
haunts the glassy brooks that steal silently through green meadows, and sits 
on the silver waves at moonlight, playing his harp to the elves, who dance on 
the flowery margin." — Washington Irving. 

* See HalliweU's " Fairy Mythology," p. 149. 
§ Ibid., p. 200. 

I| See " Notes and Queries," Feb. 14, 1852, p. 163. 

<ft Perhaps this name means Titsley Wood, and comes from Tad, Ted, or 
Tet, which words are said to mean the Celtic god Mercury. See the account 
of the Toot Hills, p. 235. 



440 

borough, Alesborough*, or Aylesborough Hill f, near Pershore ; 
Wintill, in Acton Beauchamp ; Winstile in the Anglo-Saxon 
boundaries of Hymelton, Hemelton, or Himbleton ; and Wynn 
Meadow, in the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Bredicot or Bradi- 
cote|. There is also a farm called "Patches" or "Paches§;" 
an eminence called " Patch Hill;" an estate called " Grimsend;" 
pieces of land called " Sibhay " or " Tibhay," and the 
" Tibbins ;" and a hole in a rock called the " Fairies' Cave," in 
the hamlet of Alfiick ; a hamlet called " Lulsley," adjoining 
Grimsend ; " Patch-ham," in Lulsley ; Tibs Hill," in Bransford, 
in Leigh; " Patch Hill," " Pin's Hill," and " Win's Grave," 
in Leigh, adjoining to Alfrick ; and " Drip's Hill," in Madres- 
field. It seems probable that such places, or most of them, 
were so called after the corresponding names of some of the 
above-mentioned fairies. 

There were several places of the name of Grim in Anglo- 
Saxon times, as we shall after state. "Domesday Book" mentions 
Gremanhil and Grimanleh, in Worcestershire, and persons of the 
name of Grim, as land-owners in Devon, Cornwall, and Worces- 
tershire, and as under-tenants in Warwickshire and Essex. 

" Drip's Hill," in Madresfield, is sometimes called " Trip's 
Hill," and is so designated in Isaac Taylor's map, published in 
1772 ; but I rather think " Dryps" title to the hill is better than 
" Trips." 

" Tib's Hill," in Bransford, in Leigh, abuts upon Powick ; 
" Patch Hill," in Leigh, borders upon the river Teme, opposite to 
Broadwas, and lies near to the Bed Cliff, the Devil's Pig-trough ||, 
and Omber's Hill II, and not far from Alfrick and Lulsley; and 

* See the map in Gibson's " Camden," 1st ed., 1695, and the account in 
the 2nd ed., 1722, Vol. i., p. 629. 

+ This name probably means Elsborough Hill. See Elbury Hill, p. 225. 

J See Nash, Vol. ii., App., 52, 53, and Heming's " Cartulary," pp. 355, 356, 357. 

§ It is spelt " Paches," in a deed of 1735. 

|| This is either a natural trench, or an ancient artifical cutting through the 
declivity there. It lies on the north side of the present bye-road. 

^[ A fine head-land overlooking the Teme. The name probably is a 
corruption of Amber's Hill, in like manner as the name Ombersley is of 
Ambreslege or Ambersley ; for the peasantry to this day call a hammer 
*' Omber." The ancients distinguished stones, erected with a religious view. 



441 

" Pin's Hill," in Leigh, adjoins the field called " Win's Grave," 
and a place called Little Towbury*, and is near Hoptonf. 

Win's I (or Wynn's) Grave § is supposed by some to have been 
the burial place of a giant of that name. Now I do not wish 
to rob the supposed giant of his grave, if he is entitled to it ; 
but there may be a question, whether it was not supposed, in 
days of yore, that the fairy " Pin," and her neighbours " Patch," 
" Grim," " Lull," " Sib," and " Tib," and all the tribe at Osebury 
Rock, buried their sister " Win " at the spot in question. 

The fairies, although long-lived, were nevertheless supposed 
by some writers to be mortal. See the account of the birth and 
death of Oberon in Halli well's " Fairy Mythology," pp. 102, 
119 ; and Drayton, in his " Nymphidia," in describing the battle 
between Oberon and Pigwiggen, says, that they 

" Both to be slain were likely." 

In the north of England, " green shady spots are pointed out 
by the country-folks as the cemeteries of the tiny people ||." 

Some writers, however, describe them as immortals. 

In connection with the name Wiggen may be mentioned that 
there was in Worcestershire, in the Anglo-Saxon times, a place 
called Uuiggangeat^T (Wiggingate), and Wiggeu-hall, in Norfolk; 
Wiggin-thorpe, in Yorkshire ; Wiggins-hall, near Tibs-hall, in 
Warwickshire ; Wiggen Ash, in Much Marcle, Co. Hereford ; 
and Wiggenton, in Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, and Staffordshire. 

In the northern counties, the mountain ash is called the 

by tbe name of " Amber," which signified any thing solar or divine. See 
Chap. II., Ambrosiae Petrae, p. 372, &c. 

* There also is a place called Great Towbury, in Leigh. See p. C4, as to 
Towbury Hill Camp, in Twyning, Gloucestershire. 

+ Heming's " Cartulary" notices Hoptun, in Shropshire, and Hopwuda 
(Hopwood), in Worcestershire, see pp. 276, 610. 

I " Win" in Anglo-Saxon implies a battle. See Gough's " Camden," Vol. 
i., p. 160. 

§ The word " grave " is sometimes a corruption of " grove " and vice versa. 
See the account of Bromsgrove, pp. 115, 118, 122. 

|| See " Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales," a sequel to the " Nursery 
Rhymes of England," by Mr. Halliwell. 

% See " Codex Dip.," No. 570. 



442 

wiggen tree, and its anti-witching properties are there held in 
great esteem*. 

The ash tree holds a conspicnons place in Scandinavian 
mythology. In the " Edda of Snorro " (Fable the 8th), it is 
stated that the city of the gods is under the ash, " the greatest 
and best of all trees ;" and that " there are in heaven a great 
many pleasant cities, and none without a divine garrison. Near 
the fountain, which is under the ashf, stands a very beautiful 
city, wherein dwell three virgins, named Urda, or the Past ; Ver- 
dandi, or the Present ; and Sskulda, or the Future. These are 
they who dispense the ages of men ; they are called nornies, 
that is, fairies|, or destinies." " Some are of celestial origin, 
others descend from the genii, and others from the dwarfs." 
" The nornies who are sprung of a good origin, are good them- 
selves, and dispense good destinies ; but those men to whom 
misfortunes happen, ought to ascribe them to the evil nornies or 
fairies." 

But we must return to the parish of Leigh. There is a cross 
road, called " Tinker's Cross," in this parish, where formerly 
stood an old yew tree, said to mark the site of a criminal's 
grave §. This place is said to be haunted; and Mr. John 
Pressdee, of Worcester, has informed me that, one night about 
fifty years ago, one of his father's servants carne home to 
Millham, in Alfrick, frightened almost to death, and stated that 
he had been to see his father, who lived in Gallows Lane, in 
Leigh, and as he passed " Tinker's Cross," on his return home, 
he saw a strange thing there, something like a lion, with eyes as 
big as saucers. Mr. Pressdee said, that the man appeared to 

* See Hone's " Every-day Book and Table Book," Vol. iii., p. 674. 

+ In the Fifth fable of the same work, it is stated that man was created out 
of aske, the Gothic for an ash tree ; and woman out of emla, or the elm tree. 

I Nornir (Islandic), is rather "fates" or "destinies" (parcae.) 

§ The traditions are very confused as to the tinker's crime. His burial in 
the cross road, prima facie, goes to show that he committed suicide, and some 
say that the yew tree was originally a stake that was driven through his body ; 
but I am inclined to think that he committed an atrocious murder at the spot 
in question, and was executed there, to render the example as signal as 
possible ; for one of the roads leading thereto is called " Gallows Lane." 



443 

be perfectly sober at the time, and that he was ill for several 
days afterwards, from the fright. 

The unbelievers, no doubt, will say that in the gloomy shades 
of night he saw some harmless animal — perhaps a calf or jackass 
— at the dreaded spot, with wondering instead of wondrous eyes, 
which his heated imagination worked up into somethiDg super- 
natural ; but believers, no doubt, will contend that it was Puck, 
and that the following quotation from a curious old tract by 
Rowlands, on " Goblins," tends to identify him : — 

" Amongst the rest was a Good-Fellow devill, 
So cal'd in kindness, 'cause he did no evill ; 
Knowne by the name of Eobin (as we heare), 
And that his eyes as broad as sawcers were, 
Who came a-nights*, &c." 

Patch Ham, in Lulsley, lies near the river Teme, by Puttocks 
or Pot-hooks-end. 

Oseberrow or Osebury (vulgo Rosebury) Rock, in Lulsley, was, 
according to tradition, a favourite haunt of the fairies. Close by 
it, westward, in Knightwick, there is a well called " Black's 
Well ;" and adjoining to it, eastward, there is a piece of land 
called " Black Borough;" close to it, southward, stands " Bate's 
Bush." 

The etymology of the first syllable in the name Oseberrow is 
probably the same as " osier ;" trees of the willow kind abound- 
ing at the foot of the rock, upon the banks of the river Teme. 
The provincial term " berrow" is used indiscriminately both for 
" burgh," a fortified place,- and for " barrow," an ancient place of 
sepulture ; however, I should think, from the character and com- 
manding position of the rock (it being opposite to Knightsford), 
that in this case burgh or burrow is meant. 

Black's Well used to be on the side of the Sandy Lane, by 
Osebury Rock ; but the road having lately been made straighter 
at that part, it now is a few yards out of the lane, on the left- 

* See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," p. 170 ; and in pp. 12, 13, of the 
Introduction to that work it is stated that " a manuscript of the thirteenth 
century, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, appears to refer to the name and 
pranks of Robin Goodfellow, under the name of ' Robinet.' " 



444 

hand side going down. This well and Osebury Rock, Black 
Borough, Common Berrow, and Sherah Croft, Little Berrow, and 
Pen Hill, are nearly all in a line. 

Bate's Bush is a large, old maple tree, which stands in the 
middle of the cross road by Osebury Rock. This is said to have 
been a stake driven through the body of a man named Bate, who 
committed suicide and was buried there. There are several trees 
spontaneously springing up round the maple, namely, an oak, a 
holly, a hazel, and a hawthorn ; and it is to be hoped, when the 
venerable maple is no more, that some one of these will remain 
to perpetuate the bush. 

The place is reported to be haunted, and the following is given 
as an instance of it : — 

As a person of the name of William Yapp was one night, 
about forty years ago, returning from his father's house, situated 
by Alfrick Chapel, to Dodenham Hall, he had to pass by Bate's 
Bush ; when arrived there, the dog that accompanied him, and 
was a little in advance, came howling mysteriously back to him, 
out of the Sandy Lane. He, however, went on, but had not 
proceeded far before he saw something which he took to be a 
man without a head*, leaning with his back against the steep 
bank on the Osebury Rock side of the lane ; at which he was so 
frightened that he did not dare to go up to it, but hurried away 
home as fast as he could runf. 

I have also been informed how that a certain person of the 
name of Ball, about forty-five or fifty years ago, went from his 
house, near Lulsley Chapel, to see a man of the name of Broad, 
who lived at Wildgoose Hill, in Knightwick, and that his son, 
who went at night to fetch him home, was met at Bate's Bush 
by some strange thing, which frightened him almost to death J. 
Also, how that a man, of the name of Parry, was one night met 
at the same bush by something like a black pig ; and that another 
person, as he was one night returning home from Oldham, near 
the Red Cliff and the Devil's Pig-trough, to Colles or Coles 

* There is a place called Headless Cross at Ipsley, Co. Warwick, 
t I had this from his surviving sister. 
t I had this from the son and others. 



445 

{yulgo Cold) Place *, in Lulsley, was met by a mysterious-looking 
black dog, who sometimes rushed close by him, then appeared 
again at a distance, and thus dodged him nearly all the way till 
he got home. 

The sceptics, no doubt, will say that some mischievous wight 
occasionally personified Bate at the spot in question, and that 
the pig was nothing more than mortal, and had wandered to the 
bush from some neighbouring stye ; that the dog (equally mortal) 
had lost his master, and was roving about Lulsley to find another. 
The believers, on the other hand, will contend that it really was 
Bate who thus appeared, and that although he had no head, yet 
that he had a tale to unfold, which those he met were not civil 
enough to wait to hear ; and that the pig did indeed wander to 
the dreaded bush from a neighbouring place, but that it was from 
the Devil's Pig-trough f, and that he was of kin to the black dog, 
who was no other than the fairy Grim, who sometimes went 
about in the likeness of a black dog, and that Oldham was in his 
nightly round from Osebury Rock, Black Borough, the Red Cliff, 
the Devil's Pig- trough, Grimsend, and Bate's Bush, to Black's Well, 
where having slaked his thirst, he returned again to the rock. 

This road was much more interestingly haunted at the part 
between Grimsend and Bates Bush, at the copse which lies 
between the former and Ravenhill's {yulgo Raffnal's) Green. I 
have been informed by a person, that as his father, about seventy 
or eighty years ago, was proceeding at dead of night from Patches 
in Alfrick to Lulsley, he saw, as it is said others also occasionally 
did at the same spot, a beautiful young female figure, all in white, 
standing by the roadside"; his horse turned suddenly round, but 
upon being forced back again by his rider, he started off at full 
gallop by the enchanting vision, and never stopped till he arrived 
at his journey's end J. 

* See the section " Old Coles." 

f Grimm, in his " German Fairy Mythology," furnishes some instances of 
the Evil One assuming the shape of a "hog." See "Athenaeum," Sept. 18, 
1847, p. 982. 

+ Horses are supposed to see ghosts, even when the ghosts are invisible to 
their riders. Upon my once asking a countryman whether he had ever seen 
a ghost, he said, " No, but my horse has." 



446 

It also is said that something like a white horse has occasionally 
been seen in the night, proceeding as swift as the wind along the 
foot of Osebury Rock, by the side of the river Teme, the clatter 
of his hoofs on such occasions having been distinctly heard. 

As we have just passed the Red Cliff, it may as well be 
remarked that in it there was a hole called " Black Jack's Cave," 
but it is now nearly filled up with the marl which gradually 
crumbles down the precipice. This cave is said to have been 
inhabited by a convict, of the name of Farnham (vulgo Thorn- 
ham), who, about eighty or ninety years ago, returned from 
transportation before his time had expired, and took up his abode 
in that romantic and secluded spot : he was commonly called 
" Black Jack." The cave lay about half way up the almost 
perpendicular cliff, and many are the tales that are told how 
Black Jack used to climb up to it with all the agility of a cat, 
even when laden with the spoils of the neighbourhood. There is 
also a piece of land called " Black Jack's Hole" (vulgo Hook's 
Meadow), in the parish of St. John, in Bedwardine, by Laughern 
Brook, on the road-side leading to Temple Laughern, and near 
to Ambrose (alias Hook's) Mill ; some say that this latter name 
is a corruption of "Jack Black's Knoll." I was, in the year 
1846, told by a very aged farmer in Alfrick, of the name of 
Trehearn, that he when a boy saw Black Jack, and that he had 
been dead about seventy-five years. 

" Lulsley " is mentioned in an Inquisition of 1479 ; it is there 
spelled " Lullesley " * ; and Lulsey in Visitations of 1461 and 
1507. We meet with " Lullesley or Lullesey," in an award 
of 1524 ; and " Lulsley and Lulsey" in the exemplification of a 
decree of 1585, relative to Suckley, Alfrick, and Lulsleyf. The 
name is a compound of the words " Lull," (" Lulu," Danish,) 
" to compose to sleep by a pleasing sound J," and " Ley " (Saxon), 
"ground untilled§," and seems descriptive of the "sweete 
musicke " and free character of fairyland || . 

* See Nash, Vol. ii., p. 397. 

+ Ibid., Vol. ii., p. 75, of the Corrections and Additions. 

X Spenser. 

§ See p. 214. 

|| Also see p. 193 to 205, and Iter VI., pp. 249, 250, relative to Lulsley. 



447 

It may as well be noticed here, that in the chapel-yard at 
Lulsley there is an ancient female yew tree, which is six yards 
round at about five feet, and five yards round at about three feet 
from the base. The head of it is partly dead, and several large 
limbs have been broken off. The length, from the extremity of 
one bough to that of the opposite one, is twenty-two yards. In 
Cradley, Co. Hereford, near the Beck on Old Storage, in Alfrick, 
there is a yew tree which is twelve feet round at three feet, and 
fourteen feet three inches round at six feet from the base. In 
Stanford Bishop churchyard, Co. Hereford, there is a female yew 
tree which is thirty-one feet round at about seven feet, and 
twenty-seven and a half feet round at about six feet from the 
base, but it is not quite so large at the base. The above measure- 
ments were made about sixteen or eighteen years ago. 

The name Alfrick has been considered as meaning Elf-reich, 
or fairyland. Its most probable signification, however, is 
Alfredswic*. 

Oughton or Eoten Wells, in Alfrick, lie near the Upper 
House, as before stated, and just below Norgrove, or Hoargrovef- 

The meadow called " Sibhay," or " Tibhay j, in Alfrick, lies in 
the G-rimsend estate, and adjoins the Tibbins in Clay-Green 
farm, which abuts upon Patches ; and here it may be observed, 
that it is curious that the piece of land called " Sibhay," or " Tib- 
hay," has two fairy names for its prefix, like " Drips Hill," or 
" Trips Hill," before described§. The word " hay" comes from the 

* See further, relative to this place, pp. 193 to 207, and Iter VI., pp. 246 to 
249. Since p. 206 was printed, I find Alfrick is called " Alfredes-wic" in the 
first edition of Gibson's " Camden," published in 1695, p. 527, who therein 
says it is so written in old writings ; and he calls Austinfric " Austines-ric," 
There is a fine echo at the Upper House in Alfrick, which is so distinct, that it 
will allow about ten syllables to be uttered before it begins to repeat them. The 
spot is in the garden, opposite to and about two hundred and fifty yards from 
Alfrick Chapel. In proof of its distinctness, one of the pointer dogs used occa- 
sionally to resort to the spot, and bark till he was tired, at his supposed antagonist. 

+ See pp. 246, 435. 

| This name, probably, is a contraction of Tibia, the name of an ancient 
musical pipe. 

§ See p. 440. 



448 

Saxon " hieg." To dance the hay, means to dance in a ring, — 
probably from dancing round a haycock*. Hay (Fr. hare, a hedge) 
means a net which encloses the haunt of an animal f. There is 
a piece of land called " Robin's Hays," in Northfieldj. 

" Patch Hill," in Alfrick, lies in Patches Farm; and there is 
a very steep, deep, and gloomy lane, called the Sandy Lane, 
which runs down the south side of the farm by Patch Hill to the 
main road, by the Fairy's Cave in the rock at the Knap§, by the 
Bridge 's-stone, near the north side of Old Storage, and many are 
the tales told of the haunted lane. Frequently has the benighted 
peasant been scared by the sight of a black greyhound, or of a 
horse or man of the same sombre hue. Sometimes a mysterious 
waggon, drawn by four black horses, has passed by him, while at 
others his eyes have encountered the form of a crow, perched 
upon one of the barrels in an old cider-house || attached to a 
mouldering building in the lane. Often, too, have strange 
unearthly noises issued, in the dead stillness of the night, from 
the same building, like sounds as of a cooper's hammer wielded 
by no mortal hand. 

The black dog has likewise been seen at Callow's Leap, a place 
near the foot of the Sandy Lane, on the main road side, where it 
is said that a mighty hunter, of the name of Callow, leaped down 
the precipice. A carrier, who weekly goes through the main road 
with a horse and cart, told me, that upon his return home one 
night, from Worcester to Suckley, he saw, nearly opposite to the 
cottage by Callow's Leap, what he took to be a man lying in the 
ditch; but, upon his seizing the horse's head to prevent him 
taking fright, he all of a sudden lost sight of the supposed human 
being, and something like a black dog rushed close by him under 
the horse's neck. He also said that his horse, at two or three 
different times, made a dead halt at that spot, and that he had 
much difficulty in getting him on again. 

* Shakespeare. 

+ Perry's Dictionary. 

% See p. 130. 

§ See p. 193, as to the derivation of the name of this hillock. 

I! See the section " Old Coles." 



449 

There was a play, in Shakespeare's time, called the " Black 
Dogge of Newgate," (see Henslowe's " Diary," published by the 
Shakespeare Society,) and one of the items in the " Diary," p. 246, 
is as follows: — " Lent unto John Dewcke, the 10 of Janewary, 
1602, to bye lame skenes for the ' Black Dogge of Newgate,' the 
some of x 3 ." 

In Waldron's ' ; History of the Isle of Man," there is, among 
the fairy legends, an account of an apparition called the " Mauthe 
Doog," which the Manks alleged, used, in the shape of a large 
black spaniel, with curled shaggy hair, to haunt Peel Castle. (See 
also, Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," p. 309. 

Patch has given his own character in the " Life of Bobin 
Good-fellow*," in the following words : — 

" About mid-night do I walke, and for the trickes I play they 
call me Pach. When I find a slut asleepe, I smuch her face if it 
be cleane ; but if it be durty, I wash it in the next water-pot that 
I can finde," &c. " Some I finde that spoyle their masters' horses 
for want of currying : those I doe daube with grease and soote, and 
they are faine to curry themselves ere they can get cleane," &c. 

" Thus many trickes, I, Pach, can doe, 
But to the good I ne'er was foe," &c. 

The name of the court fool of Elizabeth, Queen Consort of 
Henry VIL, was Patch f. The fool of Henry VIII. was also so 
named. 

Grim thus describes himself in Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology J :" 
" I walke with the owle, and make many to cry as loud as she 
doth hollow. Sometimes I doe affright many simple people, for 
which some have termed me the Blacke Dog of Newgate," &c. 
" 'Tis I that do, like a skritch-owle, cry at sicke men's windowes, 
which make the hearers so fearefull, that they say that the sick 
person cannot live§," &c. 

* See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," pp. 151, 152. 

+ See the " Lives of the Queens of England," hy Miss Agnes Strickland, 
Vol. iv., p. 62. 

J Pp. 152, 153. 

§ The peasantry have a fancy, to this day, that they sometimes either see 
or hear a " token" when a person is going to die, which they call " Fetch ;" 

G G 



450 

" Wlien candles burne both blue and dim, 
Old folkes will say, ' Here's fairy Grim ! ' " 

Grim was a most notable personage in the Anglo-Saxon (or 
Scandinavian) mythology, being no other than the Evil One him- 
self, under a different name. 

In Thorpe's " Northern Mythology," Vol. i. p. '23, it is stated 
that the musical Grim, or Fossegrim, of Norway, is a being whose 
sojourn is by waterfalls and mill- works. 

Sib thus describes herself, and Tib, and other " women fayries," 
and likewise Tom Thumb, in the " Life of Robiu Good-fellow*." 

" To walke nightly, as do the men fayries, we use not ; but 
now and then we goe together, and at good huswives fires we 
warme and dresse our fayry children. If wee find cleane water and 
cleane towels, wee leave them money, either in their basons or in 
their shoes ; but if we find no cleane water in their houses, we 
wash our children in their pottage, milke, or beere, or what-ere 
we fiude," &c. 

" Tib and I the chiefest are, 
And for all things doe take care ; 
Licke is cooke and dresseth meate, 
And fetcheth all things that we eat ; 
Lull is nurse and tends the cradle, 
And the babes doth dresse and swadle ; 
This little fellow, called Tom Thumb, 
That is no bigger than a plumb, 
He is the porter to our gate, 
For he doth let all in thereat, 
And makes us merry with his play, 
And merrily we spend the day." 

I could have adduced several other names of places which cor- 
respond with the names of some of the fairies ; but I have confined 
myself principally to those places in this county with which I am 
well acquainted, and the fairy names of which appear to be sup- 
ported by concurrent facts or circumstances f . 

and upon such occasions they say, " Fetch is come." There is Fatch Leasow, 
in Burcot, in Bronisgrove. The peasantry say fatch for fetch, and fatches for 
vetches. Feckenham is called Feckeha, in " Domesday Book." 

* See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," pp. 153, 154. 

+ It is a very curious fact that so many of those peculiar places, which in 






[ funiier show than many of the 



O.r, 0:i: ; :a^i-::L IS 

Coccelia . 7-j-i. I "'.i-L II 

Cobhenstan . 



E-.c- E.;-jLzf:ri . . 191 




.. 

"_- ,.:/_- - -.-.- - .'-r-Zr. V _ -_. 1^ -■-.;-..:--. ;. 

: -- Boring's « Crater:* pp. 30). uil Bfeft, T«L &, 

- - - --■-.■ : 
::±i— £: . .— •:■ --- 

Ac; alao see pp. 4£k 435, of 



452 



Fairy 


Names of places in the 




No. of the 


Names. 


" Codex Dip." 




Charters. 


Grim . 


Grimastun .... 
Grimstone, Norfolk. 


759. 




»» 


Grimanhyl .... 
Worcestershire. 


466. 




»> 


Grimsetene gemero 

Grimset, Wore. 


561. 


1 



Grimes hylle* . . . 209, 209 App., Vol. iii. 
Grimanleah, Grimanlea, or 





Grimgelege f 


. 266, 266 App., Vol. iii.; 
514, 514 App., Vol. 
vi. ; 515, 515 App., 
Vol. iii., 1069. 




Grimley, Wore. 




»> 


Griman edisc 


. 180, 180 App., Vol. iii. 


Hob . 


Hobbesse 

Hauboys, Norfolk. 


. 785. 


Hop . 


Hopping 

Hopping, Surrey. 


. 537. 


»j 


Hopwuda 

Hopwood, Worces. 


. 261, 351. 


>> 


Hopwudes wic 


. 262, 262 App., Vol. iii. 


Imp . 


Impintun 

Impington, Camb. 


. 907. 


Lull . 


Lullan setl. . 


. 652, 1065. 


>> 


Lulan treow . 


. 18, 18 App., Vol. iii. 




Lullesbeorh . 


. 374, 374 App., Vol. iii ; 
488, 488 IM., 1002, 
1186. 



Lullesborough, Hants. 

* See Heming's " Cartulary," for Grimanhylle, sive Grimmanhylle, vel 
Gremanhil, pp. 164, 165, 257, 300. 

f Ibid , as to Griman] eage, Grimanlege, Grimanleag, Grimelege, Grimanleg, 
Grimeleage, Grimanleah, vel Grymley, p. 147, &c, and Grimel, p. 516; also 
see before, pp. 438, 439, 440. Professor Leo, of Halle, says the word 
" Grima " denotes a mask. 



453 

Fairy Names of places in the No. of the 

Names. " Codex Dip." Charters. 

Lull . Lulleswyrth . . . .714. 
Lulsworth, Oxford. 

Luling . . . . 1245. 

„ Lullinges treow . . . 227. 

Lullingstree, Midd. 

„ Lullingmynster, Lullyngminstre 314, 350, 1067. 

? Lullington, Sussex. 

Patch. Paeccingas, Peaccingas, Pec- 

cinges .... 114,481,715,896. 
Patching, Sussex. 

Pink . Pincanden .... 570. 
PinMen, Wore. 

Pincanham .... 347, 347 App., Vol. iii. 
Pifikham, Wore. 

Pin . Pinnan rod .... 767. 

Pinnelesfeld . .- . . 172. 

Pines heafod . . . 1088. 

Pip . Pipe 118, 118 App., Vol. iii. 

(Pipe,) Wore. 

Pippanleah .... 549, 1279. 
Pipley, Wore. 

Pipmynster .... 774, 1117, 1140. 
Pitminster, Somerset. 

„ Pippanslaed . . . .150, 150 App., Vol. iii. 

Pipslade, Wore. 

Pippelrethig . . . . 1171. 
Pipplerithe, Berks. 

„ Pippellrieg . . . .1171. 

Pipplebridge, Berks. 

„ Pippenes fenne . . . 1360. 

„ Pippenes pen . . . 426, 426 App., Vol. iii. 

Pipspen, Glouc. 



454 



Fairy 
Names. 


Names of places in the 
" Codex Dip." 


No. of the 
Charters. 


Pip 


. Piperingas . 

Pippering, Sussex. 


. 1001. 


>> 


Pipernaes 

Pipperness, Kent. 


. 731. 


5> 


Pippesleah . 

Pipsley, Berks. 


. 1123. 


5J 


Pipliugcgtun 

Pipplington, Wore. 


. 570. 


Puck . 


Pucanwyl . 

Puckwell, Somerset. 


, 408, 408 App., Vol. iii. 


Sib . 


Sibbe stapele 
Wore. 


209, 209 App., Vol. iii. 


?> 


Sibbeslea . 


1094. 


?> 


Sibbesweg . 
Hants. 


595. 


>> 


Siblingchurst 
Hants. 


589. 


Tib 


Tybenham . 

Tibbenham, Norfolk. 


785. 


>> 


Tibbanhol . 


1000. 


Tick . 


Ticenheal . 

Ticknall, Derby. 


710, 1298. 


Tit . 


Tit .... 


957. 


j> 


Tittandun .... 


346, 346 App., Vol. iii., 
970, 1295. 


„ 


Titferthes geat 


378, 378 App., Vol. iii., 




Wilts. 


1120. 


j> 


Tittenhalh .... 
Tittingale, Wore. 


559. 


Trip . 


Triphyrst . . 

Triphurst, Glouc. 


385. 



455 



Fairy 


Names of places in the 


No. of the 


Names, 


" Codex Dip." 


Charters. 


Trip . 


Tripelau 

Triplow, Camb. 


. 907. 


Win . 


Wynnedun . 

Windon, Somerset. 


. 516, 516 App.,Vol. iii. 


»> 


Wineshyl 

Winshill, Derby. 


. 710, 1298. 


„ 


Wynne maedua . 


. 683. 




Wore. 




5> 


Wynes leah . 

Wifisley, Wilts. 


. 585, 585 App„ Vol. iii. 


" 


Wines treow 


. 427,427 App, Vol iii., 
1147, 1177, 1198, 
1265. 


>5 


Wynburh edisc 
Worces. 


. 570. 



With respect to the Saxon name " Grim," is it not possible 
that it was derived from the name of the Swedish king Grymer, 
who was so celebrated in Swedish and Danish song, and a descrip- 
tion of whose romantic exploits are appended to the translation of 
Mallet's " Northern Antiquities," Vol. ii., p. 248, &c. In fact, 
many of the names of the elves and fairies may have been bor- 
rowed from those of either real or imaginary heroes. 



456 

FAIEY RINGS. 

I mentioned, in a former page*, that fairy rings abound in 
various parts of this county. Botanists variously account for 
their formation ; a common opinion, however, is that they are 
caused by a species of vegetable growth, which radiates from a 
centre and spreads wider and wider in a circle, causing the grass 
at its circumference to assume a deep green colour and rank 
appearance. Upon the rim of one of these fairy rings being dug 
into, a whitish, fibrous f, starchy-looking matter appears under 
the sod, amongst the roots of the grass, and at certain seasons 
several species of fungi or agarics grow in great numbers upon 
such rims. Some writers consider that the fibrous matter is 
either the roots or spawn of the fungi, and that its presence 
causes the grass to be of a deeper colour at the rims ; others 
suppose that they are caused by the fall of electric matter during 
thunder storms. But let us leave the regions of science to the 
botanists, and return to the more genial realms of fairyland. 

Shakespeare alludes to fairy rings in the " Midsummer Night's 
Dream," in a scene between Puck and another fairy, as follows : — 

" Puck. — How now, spirit ! whither wander you ? 
" Fairy. — Over hill, over dale, 

Through bush, through briar, 
Over park, over pale, 

Through flood, through fire : 
I do wander every where, 

Swifter than the moone's sphere ; 
And I serve the fairy queen, 

To dew her orbs upon the green," &c. 

In a scene between Oberon and Titania there are the following 
lines : — 

" Oberon. — How long within this wood intend you stay ? 

" Titania. — Perchance till after Thesus' wedding day. 
If you will patiently dance in our round, 
And see our moonlight revels, go with us, &c. 

* See p. 412. 

+ Tbat it is fibrous I believe there can be no doubt ; for several years ago 
I had a portion of it examined by a gentleman, with a powerful microscope, 
who pronounced it to be fibrous. 



457 

The rings are also noticed in the " Life of Robin Good-fellow,*" 
as follows : — 

" There was wont to walke many harmlesse spirits, called fay 
ries, dancing in brave order in fayry rings on greene hills, with 
sweete musicke (sometime invisible), in divers shapes," &c. 

And in Robin's songf, as follows : — 

" Elves, urchins, goblins all, and little fairyes, 

That doe fillch, blacke, and pinche mayds of the dairyes, 
Make a ring on the grasse with your quicke measures ; 
Tom shall play, and I'le sing for all your pleasures." 

And in the " Pranks of Puck}," as follows : — 

" Whenas my fellow elves and I, 
In circled ring do trip a round," &c. 

In an " Episode of Fairies," published in 1600§, there are the 
following lines : — 

" Round about, round about, in a fine ring-a, 

Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing-a ; 
Trip and go, to and fro, over this green-a, 
All about, in and out, for our brave queen-a." 

And in Drayton's " Nymphidia||," as follows : — 

" And in their courses make that round 
In meadows and in marshes found, 
Of them so call'd the fairy-ground, 
Of which they have the keeping." 

And in the " Wiltshire Collections of Aubrey relative to the 
Fairies 11," the following curious particulars are stated : — 

" In the yeare 1633-4, soone after I had entered into my 
grammar at the Latin Schoole at Yatton Keynel, our curate, 
Mr. Hart, was annoy 'd one night by these elves or fayries. Com- 



* See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," p. 122. 
+ Ibid., p. 149. 



+ Ibid., p. 168 
§ Ibid., p. 180. 
|| Ibid., p. 197. 
% Ibid., pp. 235, 236. 



458 

ming over the dowries, it being neere darke, and approcking one 
of the fairey dances, as the common people call them in these 
parts, viz., the greene circles made by those sprites on the grasse, 
he, all at once, sawe an innumerable quantitie of pigmies or very 
small people, dancing rounde and rounde, and singing, and mak- 
ing all manner of small odd noyses As to these circles, I 

presume they are generated from the breathing out of a fertile 
subterraneous vapour, which comes from a kinde of conical con- 
cave, and endeavours to get out at a narrow passage at the top, 
which forces it to make another cone inversely situated to the 

other, the top of which is the green circle If you digge 

under the turfe of this circle, you will find at the rootes of the 

grasse a hoare or mouldinesse Mem. — That pidgeon's 

dung and nitre, steeped in water, will make the fayry circles : it 
drawes to it the nitre of the aire, and will never weare out." 

The following recipe is given in Adams's work on " Flowers, 
their Moral, Language, and Poetry," whereby, it is said, a sight 
of the fairies may be obtained. 

" We have a precious unguent, prepared according to the 
receipt of a celebrated alchymist, which applied to your visual 
orbs, will enable you to behold without difficulty or danger, the 
most potent Fairy or Spirit you may encounter. This is the 
form of the preparation : — ' R A pint of sallet-oyle, and put it 
into a vial-glasse ; but first wash it with rose-water, and mary- 
golde water : the flowers to be gathered towards the east. Wash 
it till the oyle come white ; then put it into the glasse, ut supra ; 
and then put thereto the budds of hollyhocke, the flowers of 
marygolde, the flowers or toppers of wild thime, the budds of 
young hazle : and the thyme must be gathered neare the side of 
a hill where Fayries use to be : and take the grasse of a fayrie 
throne ; then, all these put into the oyle, into the glasse : and 
sette it to dissolve three dayes in the sunne, and then keep it for 
thy use ; ut supra*.' " 

* Ashmolean MS. 1406, written about the year 1600. See also Halliwell's 
" Fairy Mythology," p. 229. 



459 



THE SEVEN WHISTLERS. 

Whether these were fairies, wizards, or fates, I cannot pretend 
to say ; but I have been informed by Mr. J. Pressdee, of Wor- 
cester, that, when a boy, he used to hear the country people talk 
a good deal about the " Seven Whistlers," and that he frequently 
heard his late grandfather, John Pressdee, who lived at Cuckold's 
Knoll, in Suckley, say that oftentimes, at night, when he happened 
to be upon the hill by his house, he heard six out of the " Seven 
Whistlers " pass over his head, but that no more than six of them 
were ever heard by him, or by any one else, to whistle at one 
time, and that should the seven whistle together the world would 
be at an end*. 

This is a very remarkable legend ; and it is strange that such 
a fancy should thus have been credited, almost to our own time. 
It probably took its rise either from the occasional peculiar 
whistling of the windf, or from flights of wild fowl, such as 
plovers, widgeons, or teal, which sometimes fly at night, making 
a peculiar whistling noise. Supposing, however, that the legend 
was based upon such natural causes, it certainly became most 
strangely mystified. 

This legend has been noticed in the " AthenaBumJ," in con- 
nection with a curious account in Grimm's " German Mythology," 
descriptive of the " Swan Maidens," who are represented as 
being heard flying through the air at night. 

There is a place called " Whistlers " in Lulsley, and also a 
little hill in Ireland, called " Knock-na-feadalea," which, accord- 
ing to Neilson, signifies the " Whistling Hill." He states that 
the place took this name from reports that the music of the fairies 
had been often heard to proceed from it§. 

* I have also heard a similar account from others, 

j- " Like the darkened moon he (Crugal's ghost) retired, in the midst of the 
whistling blast." — Ossian, " Fingal," Book ii. 

" Often are the steps of the dead in the dark-eddying blasts." — Ossian, 
" Temora," Book vii. 

+ For September 19th and November 14th, 1846, pp. 055, 11G2, 1103. 

§ See Thorns' " Lays and Legends of Ireland," p. 51. 



460 



THE DEVIL'S DREAM. 

As an old fiddler, named Pengree, about fifty years ago, was one 
night returning home by himself to Old Storage, from the wake 
which had been held at Knightsford Bridge Inn, he had to pass 
a place called " Hell Garden," which is situated at the bottom 
of the Cherry Bank, near to the Upper House, in Alfrick. 
When he came there (we give the narrative in his own words), he 
said, " Oh, I am come to ' Hell Garden ! ' Well, 111 give the 
• Devil's Dream ;' " which, no sooner had he struck up, than 
about 150 strange female figures came and danced all round him 
in pattens, which made him not only unshoulder his fiddle pretty 
quickly, but take to his heels as fast as he could run. This, he 
assured my informant (Mr. John Pressdee) was perfectly true* ; 
nor is it unlikely that he did see some dancing shadows there ; 
for we may rest quite satisfied, that that wonder-working spirit 
called " Old Cider," had not only entered into, but taken full 
possession of our hero f. 

THE MYSTERIOUS BLACK CAT. 

The late John Spooner, Esq., of Hopton Court, Leigh, kept a 
pack of hounds ; and Mr. John Pressdee has informed me that 
he frequently used to follow them ; and that whenever they passed 
through a certain field in Leigh Sinton, called " The Oak and 
Crab Tree," the hounds used invariably to run full cry after 
something which nobody could see, and never ceased the pursuit 
until they arrived at a cottage, situated about a mile and a half 
off, at Crumpal (otherwise Crumpen or Crumpton) Hill, in Cradley, 
which was inhabited by an old woman named Cofield, when they 
would turn back again. He added, that Mr. Spooner at such 
times used to say, " Ah, they are gone after that old witch, Dame 
Cofield ;" and upon one occasion, about forty years ago, when he 

* I have also been told the same anecdote by others. 

+ In the " Athenaeum" for September 11th, 1847, p. 958, there is a curious 
Flemish account of an old fiddler, who, returning home from the fair at 
Opbrakel, met with a rather similar adventure. 



461 

(Mr. Pressdee) was with the hounds, Mr. Spooner, before they 
entered the field in question, sent his huntsman, James Bayliss*, 
to watch by the cottage, and see whether he could unravel the 
mystery ; when lo ! he had not long been there before the hounds 
came full cry over hedge and ditch, as straight as an arrow, 
towards the cottage ; and, upon their leaping into the garden, he 
saw, just before them, either a black cat or a witch in that 
shape, which bounded from the hounds, first upon a shed, and 
then through a hole in the window of the old woman's bed- 
room. 

There is something very strange in this account ; for although 
it possibly might have been a real cat that from time to time led 
the hounds such a chase, yet, taking the narrative as it is, the 
difficulties in the way of such a supposition are great. First, 
because Mr. Pressdee says that the persons who accompanied the 
hounds never saw what was pursued ; neither did the huntsman, 
except in the instance above stated ; and, secondly, it was not 
natural for a timorous animal like a cat to venture so often to 
a certain spot, so far from home, and thereby expose herself 
to such repeated dangers. There may have been some facts in 
the case which were never discovered ; and we cannot but believe 
that the cause was a natural one, although at that time it was so 
generally attributed to witchcraft ; for Mr. Pressdee says it was a 
common saying in the neighbourhood, that the hounds had only 
to go into the Oak and Crab Tree Ground, and they would be 
sure to have a run after old Dame Cofieldf. 

It is said, if a red herring, or a piece of bacon, or certain dead 
animals, are drawn along the ground, the hounds will go full cry 

* When a boy, the author used frequently to see Mr. Spooner and his above- 
mentioned huntsman ride by his native place, the Upper House, in Alfrick, 
after the hounds ; and yet, strange to say, he was quite blind during the latter 
part of the time that he followed that diversion. His servant used to take the 
lead over slight fences, and he used to follow. 

+ It was formerly a common idea, in many districts, that the hounds did 
sometimes hunt witches in the shape of foxes and hares. This fancy, 
doubtless, often arose when an animal was so fleet and wary, that, although 
repeatedly run, it could not be caught. 



462 

along the " trail ;" and I inquired of Mr. Pressdee whether such 
a trick might not have been practised in the above-mentioned 
cases ; but he thought this was impossible, as the instances were 
so numerous, and the hounds frequently came to the spot in 
question quite casually-'. 

WITCHEBY HOLE. 

There is a place called Witchery Hole (alias Witcherly Hole), 
in Shelsley Walsh, otherwise Little Shelsley; and I recollect, 
when a boy, hearing the peasantry of Alfrick say, whenever a 
violent storm blew from the north, " The wind comes from 
Witcherly Hole ;" meaning, thereby, that the broomstick hags, 
mounted on their aerial steeds, were then rushing southward 
from their mysterious hole, and were followed in their course by 
an atmospheric hurly-burly f. 

OLD COLES. 

I well remember, in my juvenile days, hearing old people speak 
of a spectre that formerly appeared in the parish of Leigh, in this 
county, which they called " Old Coles." They said that he fre- 
quently used, at dead of night, to ride as swift as the wind down that 
part of the public road between Bransford and Brocamin, called 
Leigh Walk, in a coach drawn by four horses, with fire flying out 
of their nostrils ; and that they invariably dashed right over the 
great barn at Leigh Court, and then on into the river Teme. It 
was likewise said, that this perturbed spirit was at length laid in 
a neighbouring pool by twelve parsons, at dead of night, by the 
light of an inch of candle ; and, as he was not to rise again until 
the candle was quite burnt out, it was, therefore, thrown into the 



* The old dame was also charged with having frequently upset waggons as 
they passed by her cottage, and then, having looked very innocently out of her 
window, asked what was the matter. 

+ In this we appear to have a kind of mediaeval version of the cave of 
iEolus. The hole is a dingle of coppice wood, having Hell Hole, and the 
Devil's Den, in Stanford, as its neighboxu-s. 



463 

pool, and to make all sure the pool was filled up, — 
And peaceful after slept Old Coles's shade. 

Upon considering the tenor of this legend, I was led to think 
that " Old Coles" must have been a person of some quality ; and 
it induced me to look into Nash's " History of Worcestershire," 
hoping it might throw some light upon the subject. I find that 
in his account of Leigh*, he says, " This ancient lordship of the 
abbots of Pershore falling by the dissolution of monasteries into 
the king's hands, remained there till Elizabeth's time. The 
tenants of the house and demesne, both under the abbot and 
under the king and queen, were the Colles, of which family was 
Mr. Edward [Edmund] Colles f , ' a grave and learned justice of 
this shire, who purchased the inheritance of this manor;' whose 
son, William Colles J, succeeded him ; whose son and heir, Mr. 
Edmund Colles, lived in the time of Mr. Habingdon§ , and, being 
loaded with debts (which like a snow-ball from Malvern Hill 
gathered increase), thought fit to sell it to Sir Walter Devereux, 
Bart." 

The Colles's were also possessed of the manor of Suckley||, 
which shared the same fate. " The manor of Suckley remained 
in the name of Hungerford till it passed by purchase from them 
to Mr. Edmund Colles, of Leigh, in the reign of Elizabeth. He 
left it to his son, Mr. William Colles ; whose heir, Mr. Edmund 
Colles, sold it to Sir Walter Devereux, Knight and Bart. 11" 

It is not improbable that the legend may have referred to the 

* Vol. ii., p. 73. 

+ He died 19th December, 1606, aged 76. 

X Died 20th September, 1615. — (See Nash's account of the family- 
monuments in Leigh Church.) 

§ Thomas Habington, or Habingdon, of Hinlip, the historian, died 8th 
October, 1647. His son William died November 30th, 1659. — (See p. 170; 
and Nash, Vol. i., Introduction.) 

|| This manor includes the hamlets of Alfrick and Lulsley. There is a 
farm called Colles Place {vulgo Coles Place, or Cold Place) in Lulsley, " which 
is mentioned in a ledger of the Priory of Malvern, in the reign of Henry III., 
as belonging to the family of Colles." — (See Nash, Vol. ii., p. 400.) There is 
also " Coles Green," near Sandlin, in Leigh. 

% Nash, Vol. ii., p. 397. 



464 

unfortunate Edmund Colles, the second, who, having lost his 
patrimony, and, perhaps, died in distress, his spirit may have 
been supposed to have haunted Leigh Court, the seat of his joys 
in prosperity, and the object of his regrets in adversity. 

The following story, something similar, is told in the " Eambler 
in Worcestershire*," respecting the Court-house in Little 
Shelsley : — " The people say the house is haunted, and that a 
Lady Lightfoot, who was imprisoned and murdered in the house, 
comes at night and drives a carriage and four fiery horses round 
some old rooms that are unoccupied, and that her ladyship's 
screams are heard at times over the Old Court. There she has 
been seen to drive her team into the moat, and carriage, horses, 
and all, have disappeared, the water smoking like a furnace." 

It used to be supposed that the neighbourhood of Haddon, or 
of Hardwicke, Co. Derby, or both, were visited by a coach drawn 
by headless steeds, and driven by a coachman as headless as 
themselves; and that a similar equipage used to haunt the 
Mansion of Parsloes, in Essex f. 

The following is a similar legend \ : — 

" In the south of Devon, some eighteen or twenty years ago, a 
reverend gentleman, of large landed property, held a small bene- 
fice in his immediate neighbourhood, for the purpose of evading 
residence in another quarter. He was accustomed to perform 
the duty every Sunday, and was conveyed to the church in his 
chariot through one of those narrow, shady lanes, for which that 
county was then so justly famed. He died, and his remains were 
consigned to the vault in the church of the above-mentioned 
benefice, with much pomp and ceremony, and followed by a long 
procession of friends, tenants, and the surrounding neighbour- 
hood. But his spirit was not supposed to rest in peace. Villagers 
returning from their labours had been terrified by the sound of 
carriage wheels in the shady lane ; and one had even seen the 
chariot itself drawn by headless horses. The rumour spread, till 

* Published in 1851, p. 191. 

+ See the " Athenaeum" for 29th August, 1846, p. 886. 

% Ibid., for November 7, 1846, p. 1142. 



465 

it was confidently asserted in the cider shops that ' twelve 
parsons' had been convened to lay the spirit in the Red Sea. 
Still, the lane was believed to be haunted ; and, on investigating 
the reason why the spell had not taken effect, it was conjectured 
that, as one of the twelve parsons had been the intimate friend of 
the deceased — as he knawed the trick — he would communicate it 
to him, and so render it abortive. That parson was, therefore, 
struck out of the list ; and the vicar of an adjoining parish, 
lately come into residence, from ' Lunnun town,' did it all hisself; 
and neither chariot nor horses was ever knawed to walk again. 
This superstition was current under the immediate knowledge of 
the writer of this anecdote." 

Another story of the kind is told in " Notes and Queries*." 
" Sir Thomas Boleyn's Spectre. — Sir Thomas Boleyn, the 
father of the unfortunate Queen of Henry VIII., resided at 
Blickling, distant about fourteen miles from Norwich, and now 
the residence of the dowager Lady Suffield. The spectre of this 
gentleman is believed by the vulgar to be doomed, annually, on a 
certain night in the year, to drive, for a period of 1000 years, a 
coach drawn by four headless horses, over a circuit of twelve 
bridges in that vicinity. These are Aylsham, Burgh, Oxnead, 
Buxton, Coltishall, the two Meyton bridges, WrOxham, and four 
others, whose names I do not recollect. Sir Thomas carries his 
head under his arm, and flames issue from his mouth. Few 
rustics are hardy enough to be found loitering on or near those 
bridges on that night ; and my informant averred that he was 
himself hailed by this fiendish apparition, and asked to open a 
gate, but ' he warn't sich a fool as to turn his head ; and well a' 
didn't, for Sir Thomas passed him full gallop like :' and he heard 
a voice which told him that he (Sir Thomas) had no power to hurt 
such as turned a deaf ear to his requests ; but that, had he 
stopped he would have carried him off. 

" This tradition I have repeatedly heard in this neighbourhood, 
from aged persons, when I was a child, but I never found but one 
person who had ever actually seen the phantom. Perhaps some of 

* Vol. i., No. 29, May 18, 1850, p. 468. 
I I 



466 

your correspondents can give some clue to this extraordinary sen- 
tence. The coach and four horses is attached to another tradition 
I have heard in the west of Norfolk, where the ancestor of a 
family is reported to drive his spectral team through the old 
walled-up gateway of his now demolished mansion, on the anni- 
versary of his death ; and it is said that the bricks next morning 
have ever been found loosened and fallen, though as constantly 
repaired. The particulars I could easily procure by reference to 
a friend. " E. S. T. 

"P.S. — Another vision of headless horses is prevalent at Cais- 
tor Castle, the seat of the Fastolfs." 

Before leaving Leigh Court, it may as well be observed that 
strange tales have been told of a mysterious looking crow or raven, 
which sometimes used to be seen at night sitting on one of the 
barrels in a detached cyder house, and who, with a horrid flap- 
ping of his wings, would " dout*" the candle of an intruder, and 
drive him back to the upper regions. 

A similar tale is told of a lonely cellar in Alfrickf, and also of 
one in Holt Castle J. Probably these scarecrows were, in the 
good old times, almost as effective in guarding the cellars against 
all but the initiated, as Chubb 's locks now are. 

But we must' leave the witches and ghosts, and return again to 
the fairies, and ignis fatuus. 

Several of the places referred to in this treatise, are either ad- 
joining to, or not far from each other, and this is additional evi- 
dence of the source from whence their names were derived. For 
instance, — on the boundaries of Stoke Prior manor we have Puck 
Lane and Obden Brook. In Bromsgrove parish, Wilkin Close, 
Pug's Hole, Cob-Nail, Tickridge Piece, Fatch (Fetch) Leasow, 
and Jack's Croft §. In Grimley, Cob's Coppice, Big Will Tree, 
Upper and Lower Will Tree, and Jack Stile Acres. In the Ber- 
row, Puck Dole, Dobbin's Hill, Little Dobbin's Hill, and several 

* " Dout," for do out. 
f See p. 448. 

J See the " Rambler in Worcestershire," published in 1848, p. 184. 
§ In Coston Hacket, adjoining Bromsgrove parish, there is a field called 
" The Sprights." 



467 

fields called by the name of Jack. In Eldersfield, Dobb's Hill, and 
Cob Hill. In Northfield, several places called by the names of 
Hob, Cob, and Jack. InFrankley, Upper Hoblets, Banky Hoblets, 
Hob Acre, and Jack Leasow. In King's Norton, several places 
called by the names of Hobbis, Pucklin, and Dobbin. In Doder- 
hill, Cob's Close, Cob's Croft, Cob's Orchard, Thumb's Close, and 
Impney. In Alvechurch, Impey, The Himpey, Will Fields, Cob's 
Meadow, Long Cross Himpey, and Long Himpey. In Martley, 
Poke Meadow, and Puckley Green Farm. In Alfrick, Oughton or 
Eoten Wells, Sibhay or Tibhay, The Tibbins, Grimsend, Patches, 
and Patch Hill. In Lulsley, The Whistlers and Patchham. 

In Gloucestershire, Puckmore, Puckmore's Hitch, Cob's Hole, 
Pink's Field ; and Pink's Meadow, in Dymock. 

In Warwickshire. — Hob's Croft, Jack Ground, and Jack's Croft, 
in Ipsley ; Hobbin's Close, Pucknell's Close, Jack Lands, Hob's 
Moat, and Upper, Lower, and Far Elkin, in Solihull ; and Tib's- 
hall near Wiggens-hall. 

SPUNKIES. 

The ignis fatuus is called " Spunkie" in Scotland. In 
Stewart's " Superstitions of thejlighlands of Scotland," published 
in 1823, the Spunkies are described as follows : — 

" Whenever the traveller had the misfortune to lose his way, 
or whenever there was a prospect of deluding him from it, this 
vigilant link-boy was ever at hand, to light him into far worse 
quarters than even the purlieus of Covent Garden. 

" Suddenly the traveller's attention was arrested by the most 
resplendent light, apparently reflected from a window not far 
distant, which, however, as the traveller approached, receded from 
him, like the rainbow. Still pursuing his course towards it, the 
wily Spunkie manoeuvred so dexterously that the unhappy wan- 
derer was speedily decoyed into the nearest moss or precipice. 
Plunging headlong into some fatal abyss, the deluded victim never 
returned to his mournful wife and family, to relate to them the 
Spunkie 's perfidy." 



468 

In Sussex, and elsewhere, the rotten wood which emits phos- 
phorescence is called " spunk." It is sometimes stuck by 
country boys in the hedge side, as a goblin, to frighten the traveller. 
It goes by the name of " daddock" in Worcestershire, and there 
the fungi which grow on trees are called " spunk." There is 
Puncknowle, in Dorsetshire. See p. 425, where Spuck, &c, are 
considered as akin to Puck. 

KELPIES. 

Mr. Stewart also speaks of superstitions in the Highlands 
relative to fiend horses, called " Water Kelpies," who, splendidly 
accoutred, place themselves in the way of weary travellers, to 
tempt them on their backs ; and having accomplished their object, 
plunge headlong, with a fiend-like yell, into an adjacent pool, and 
prey at their leisure upon their unfortunate victims. 

These appear to be synonymous with the Irish Pooka, before 
referred to. 

There are marks in the old red sand stone in Forfarshire, called 
" Kelpies 1 feet." These are similar to the marks in the old 
red sandstone of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, referred to in 
my pamphlet upon that subject*. 

Jamieson, in his " Etymological Dictionary," thinks the name 
kelpie may be derived from the old German Chalp (Germ. Kalb), 
from the bellowing noise he makes f. 

From these various legends it seems pretty evident that our 
rude ancestors linked a part of their demonology, and afterwards 
much of their more poetical fairy mythology, upon what was then 
considered the mysterious appearances of the ignis fataus. 



As an evidence that the ignis fatuus is probably the result of 
electricity, combined with certain gases, it may be remarked that, 

* As to the causes of those marks, see the " Proceedings of the Geological 
Society in London," Vol. ii., 1836-37, No. 48, p. 439 ; and Dr. Buckland's 
" Bridgewater Treatise," Vol. L, p. 261 ; and Sir K. J. Murchison's work on 
the " Silurian System," Part i., pp. 178, 179. 

+ See " Athenaeum," December 5, 1846, p. 1244. 



469 

in a lecture oir electricity, by Andrew Crosse, Esq., of Broomfield, 
he stated, that " by means of the wire suspended in his park, he 
had discovered that a driving fog sweeps in masses, alternately, 
negatively, and positively electrified ; and once the accumulation 
of the electric fluid in a fog was so great, that there was an inces- 
sant stream of sparks from his conductor, each one of which 
would have struck an elephant dead in an instant*." 

In Leigh's " Guide to Wales and Monmouthshire," we read 
in the account of Harleigh, that in the winter of 1694, this 
neighbourhood was much alarmed by a fiery exhalation or mephitic 
vapour, which arose from a sandy, marshy tract of land called 
" Morfa Bychan" (the little marsh), across the channel, eight 
miles from Harlech, and injured much of the country, by poison- 
ing the grass in such a manner as to kill the cattle, and firing 
hay and corn ricks for near a mile from the coast. It is repre- 
sented to have had the appearance of a weak blue flame. All 
the damage was done invariably in the night ; and in the course 
of the winter not less than sixteen hay-ricks and two barns, one 
filled with corn and the other with hay, were burnt by it. It did 
not appear to affect anything else, and men could go into it 
without receiving any injury. It was observed at different times 
during eight months. An account of this singular phenomenon 
appeared in No. 208 of the " Philosophical Transactions f." 

This fiery exhalation most probably was carburetted hydrogen, 
formed by the decomposition of sea-weed and other vegetable 
matter in the marsh, and may have been ignited by electricity J. 

In other cases the ignis fatuus is probably phosphuretted 
hydrogen gas, which rises occasionally with electric exhalations 
from the earth, where animal matter has been buried and become 
putrid, and inflames upon contact with the oxygen of the atmos- 

* See " Bristol Mirror," March 9, 1839. 

+ See also Gough's " Camden," Vol. iii., pp. 174, 175. 

j It is fortunate for the Welsh that one of their strange lights is quite the 
reverse of being mischievous ; for in Wright's " Scenes in North Wales," pub- 
lished in 1833, it is stated in the Appendix, that " sometimes a warning light 
is seen to shine out before the traveller, and conduct him to the precise direc 
tion of his journey; distinguished from Jack-o'-the-Lantern in this respect — 
%at the latter cruelly ' lures us to our doom.' " 



470 

phere. In proof of this, I have been informed that a person 
once saw several ignes fatui rise out of a boggy corner of a field 
in the parish of Clifton-upon-Teme, where a horse had been buried 
some time before. 



c^U 



, 



APPENDIX 



This work was nearly all printed off before the appearance of 
a valuable " Treatise on the Local Nomenclature of the Anglo- 
Saxons, as exhibited in the ' Codex Diplomaticus sevi Saxonici ;' 
translated from the German of Professor Heinrich Leo, P.H. 
and LL.D., of Halle, with additional examples and explanatory 
notes," by B. Williams, Esq., F.S.A. Had that Treatise ap- 
peared earlier, I might have derived from it much important 
information, relative to some of the Saxon names in this work. 
A few notices, however, I must here introduce. 

Upper and Lower Areley (pp. 304, 307, 308, of this work). 
Earneleah, Anglo-Saxon, the Eagles' Lea. But see p. 308. 
Lower Areley is written Ernleye in Layamon's " Brut." 

Bromsgrove (pp. 115, 122). Bremesgraf, from the Anglo-Saxon 
" brome," a plant, and " graf," a grove. But the former 
derivation (at p. 122) appears to be the better, as the name 
is Bremesgrefa, or Bremesgrsefa, meaning Bremes-grave. 

Beoley (p. 337). Beoleah, Anglo-Saxon, the Lea of Bees. 

Buddenhill, and Buddenhill Common Field, in Castle Morton 
(pp. 71, 281). Dr. Leo, in his Treatise, speaks of places 
which were the scenes of those executions which assumed 
the form of human sacrifices amongst the Germans, and in 
which the criminal was immolated as an expiation to the 
gods ; and in a note he says : — " In the Saxon part of the 
district of Hessiga in old Germany, a plot of ground, the 
scene of such barbarous executions (burial alive, with a stake 



472 

through the heart) was named a Buddenfeld. — Vita Liu- 
geri, ap. Pertz, ii., 419." 

Crowle (p. 294). Crohlea may come from the Anglo-Saxon 
" croh" (crocus). 

Deerhurst (pp. 3 87, 188, 189). Deor-hyrst, the Bush of Stags. 

Evesham (p. 336), in Anglo-Saxon, Cronuchomme, the Ham of 
Cranes. 

Great Gog Bridge and Little Gog Bridge, in Castle Morton 
(p. 281). Dr. Leo says the names of fierce, fabulous crea- 
tures are coupled with wild, dismal places, as Grimesdic 
(grima, maleficus), iEnta die, and iEnta hlew ; the Giant's 
Dike and Mound, Goggislond, and Gugedike. 

Old Swinford (p. 273). Swynford, the Ford of Swine. 

Lincomb (pp. 112, 113). Anglo-Saxon " lin," flax, and " cumb," 
a stream or trough. 

Lindridge (p. 266). From the Anglo-Saxon, Lindhrycg, the 
Ridge of Lime Trees, where was pasturage for swine and 
goats. 

Pendock (pp. 218, 219). In a note to Dr. Leo's Treatise it is 
said, Pendock might be Anglo-Saxon ; " peond," " pund," 
signifies a place enclosed or fenced in; " pyndan" is the 
German " beunten," to fence in; " peonedoc" may stand 
for " peonedhoc" [or " peoned-hook"], and originally sig- 
nify angulum agri septi [the corner of a hedged field]. But 
see the derivation in p. 218 of this work. 

Rid Marley (p. 218). Reodemereleah. the Lea by the Mere (or 
boundary) of Reeds. But see the derivation, p. 218. 

Rushock (p. 271). Anglo-Saxon, Rixuc, (?) Rise-hoc ; the Rush- 
hook, or corner of a field where the rush-weed abounded. 

Sedgebarrow, or Sedgeberrow (pp. 85, 335), From the Anglo- 
Saxon, Secgesbearuwe, the Barrow of Sedge Grass. 

Tickenhill (p. 146). From the Anglo-Saxon, Ticen-hyl, the 
Kid's-hill. 







473 

The following account of Anglo-Saxon Dikes and Roads in 

Worcestershire is extracted from the appendix to 

Dr. Leo's Treatise*, with some names added, in 
brackets, by the Author of this work. 

iEttinc weg, Cotheridge (see p. 262). 

Beartau-weg. 

Bradan weg [Broadway] (see p. 322). 

Bugghilde Street, near Evesham (see p. 336) [it also passes 

between Church and Cow Honeybourne] (see pp. 316, 317). 
Carcadic, near Abbot's Morton (see p. 340). 
Ciolanweg [boundaries of Clopton] (see p. 262). 
Dagarding weg, Beoley (see p. 337). 
Deorelmes dyk, near Thorndun. 
Dicweg, Himbleton (see p. 325). 
Dunnedyk, near Evesham (see p. 336). 
Ealhmunding weg, Twyford. 
Elmedesdich, Bleedon. 
Eyshinige dich, Littleton (see p. 336). 
Gerdwseg. 

Irfurlanges dykef, Aston Magna (see pp. 226, 354). 
Leomanninc weg. Query, Worcestershire. 
Lolanweg. 

Middelweg, Himbleton (see p. 325). 
Pincanhammes dyke, Aston Magna (see pp. 226, 354), 
Pohweg. Query, Powick (see p. 287). 
Rahweg, near Tredington, Gloucestershire, or Worcestershire 

(see p. 356). 
Rugandyke, Ruganweg, or Rugwie, near Evesham (see p. 336) 

[and also in Broadway] (see p. 322). 
Salteraweg, Sealtstrset. 
Scearpweg, Stoke Prior (see p. 312). 

* Added by the translator of the Treatise. 
+ Query, the Archery-dike, from " ir," a bow. 



FINIS. 

K K 



- 



INDEX 



Abberlet, 265, 266. 

Abberley Hill, derivation of the name of; supposed sapling of St. Augustine's 
Oak there, 214, 215. 

Abberton, 340. 

Abbot's Leneh, or Habbe, or Hob Lencli, 340. 

Abbot's Norton, and Lenchwick, 339. 

Abbot's Morton, otherwise Stoney Morton, 340, 473. 

Acton Beauchainp, 257. 

Acton Scott, Co. Salop ; Greek and Eoman coins and other relics found there, 
9, 11, 12. 

Ad Antonam, most probably at Eckington, 75, 342, 343. 

Agg, or Egg, 244. 

Aka, or Rock (see Eock), 266. 

Alcester, Co. Warwick, 329. 

Alcrinton, now Alfreton, 295. 

Alderminster, 356, 357. 

Aldington, said to have been one of the Anglo-Saxon marks, 336. 

Alfred the Great, 194 to 204. 

Alfredeswic (see Alfrick), 193, 194, 202, 203, 204, 206, 447. 

Alfrick, etymology of, 193, 194, 202 to 205, 447. Round Hill, 194. Raven 
Hills, and the standard of the raven ; the Danes ; Ethelred and Ethel- 
flaed, Duke and Duchess of Mercia, 194 to 199. Then charter to 
Worcester, 199, 200, 201. They and Alfred were most probably in Wor- 
cester when it was granted, 198 to 201. They signed charters by making 
a cross, 201, 202. The Bante, or ancient division of land before shires, 
203, 204. As to the derivation of the name Worcester, 204. Old Storage, 
and St. Augustine's Oak, 205, 206, 207. Bunyan's signet ring and 
prison, and anecdotes of him, 207 to 212. Engraving of the prison, 
208. Woodcuts of the ring, 209. Quince Hill; Greek custom 
respecting quinces ; Catterhall and Callow's Leap, 246, 247, 248. 
Folk-lore, 412, 418, 434, 435, 440, 445, 447, 448, 460, 461, 462, 466. 
Eoten or Oughton Wells, 434. Fairy uames, and Fames' Cave, 440, 
448. The Devil's Dream, 460. 

Alne, Great, 337. 

Alney Isle, 188, 189. 

Alvechurch, 338, 339. 

Allies, in Borley, in Ombersley, 296. Manorial customs, 297 to 303. 



476 

Alluvium, accumulation of, since the time of the Romans, at Cinder Point, 
near Worcester, 30, and at Eipple, 67, 68. 

Amberley, Gloucestershire (see Arnbrosise Petrse), 368. 

Amblecote, in Old Swinford, 273. 

Arnbrosise Petrae generally, 363 to 381, 440, 441. Woodcuts of Tyrian coins, 
378, 379. 

Ancient British coin, found at Green Hill, Sidbury, Worcester, 25, 26. Wood- 
cut, 26. 

Ancient names of fields, general observations relative to, 401, 402, 403. 

Angerona, one of the Roman penates, 13, 14, with a woodcut, 14. 

Anglo-Saxon boundaries of fields, 402, 403. Relics, 76, 77, 111, 112. 

Anglo-Saxon coins found at the Castle Hill, Worcester, 17. 

Anglo-Saxon dikes and roads (see App.), 473. 

Anglo-Saxon gold coin, found at St. Clement's, Worcester, 36 to 40. Woodcut, 37. 

Anglo-Saxon marks, 228, 229. Graves, 110, 111. 

Ankerdine Hill and Osebury Rock, 212, 213. 

Areley Kings, or Lower Areley, 304; App., 471. 

Arley, Upper or Over, in Staffordshire, 145, 307, 308 ; App., 471. 

Armscott, in Newbold, 356. 

Asbury, in Hales Owen, 273. 

Ashchurch, Co. Gloucester, 334. 

Ash, Wiggen, 441, 442. 

Ast (see Astwood, in Claines), 226. 

Astley, Redstone Ferry, Layamon's " Brut," 303 ; also see Lincomb, 112, 113. 

Aston, or Eston Episcopi, or White Ladies Aston, 226, 326. 

Aston or Eston Magna, 226, 354, 473. 

Aston-under-Hill, Co. Gloucester, 329. 

Astwood, in Claines, etymology of, 226, 227, 228. Various names with the 
prefix " Ast," or " Est," 226. Anglo-Saxon marks, 228, 229. 

Astwood Hill, in Chaddesley Corbett, 124, 125, 126, and woodcut, 125. 

Atch, Ast, or East Lench, 340. 

Augustine's Oak, 191, 205, 206, 207, 215, 266. 

Austmfric, Austinric, or Austins-ric, 206, 447. 

Avenbury, Co. Hereford, 257. 

Babel's Hill, on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Smite, 319. 

Badsey, 87, 88, 336. Fairies there, named Pinket, 435. 

Bambury Stone, in Bredon Hill Camp, Kemerton, 80. Ambrosia? Petrae 

generally, with the etymology of the name, 363 to 381. Woodcuts of 

the Camp and Stone, 365. 
Bante or Bant, an ancient division of land in Suckley, 203, 204, 242. 
Barbed bronze spear-heads, with woodcuts, 30 and 31. 
Bark, on a wooden coffin of an ancient Briton, 30. 
Barrow Cop, in Perdeswell, in Claines ; tore discovered there, 229, 230, 231. 

Copper-plate engraving of it, 230. Description of tores generally. 

231, 232. 
Barrow Hill, in Chaddesley Corbett, 124, 125, 126. Wcodcut of it, 125. 
Bates-bush, in Lulsley, 444, 445. 
Battenhall, 293. 
Battlestone, or Boltstone, 144, 145. 



477 

Beal-tine, or Beltein, 124, 191, 192, 193, 353, 432. 

Bear, several places so called, 189, 190. 

Bears Wood, in Cradley, Co. Hereford, 189, 190. 

Bedwardine, derivation of it, 263. 

Beggars' needles, 425. 

Belbroughton, Roman relics found there, 135, 271. 

Bells, Roman, found at the Castle Hill, Worcester, 19. Engraving of one of 

them, Plate I., No. 14, p. 18. 
Bengeworth, 336. 

Bentley, in Holt with Little Witley, 264. 
Bentley, in Tardebig, 341. 
Beoley, 337. Camp on Beoley Hill, 337, 338. Derivation of the name, 

App., 471, 473. 
Berrington, in Tenbury, 259. 
Berrow, the Parish of the ; Pendock Portway, 70. 
Berrow Hill, in Martley ; ancient camp there, 213, 278. 
Berrow, the name either a corruption of Barrow, or of Burrow, 219. 
Besford, 326. 
Bevere Island, Roman coins and ancient bronze celt or knife found there, 

151, 152. Engraving of the knife, Plate IV., No. 11, p. 98. 
Bewdley, in Ribbesford, 146, 304. 
Bewill, Bual, Buelt ; several places so called, 247. 
Bilk, 419. 
Birlingham, 346. 
Birmingham, 314. 
Birts Morton, 281. 
Bishampton, 340. 
Black Borough, in Lulsley, 445. 
Black Cat, a mysterious, 460, 461, 462. 
Black Dog, 445, 448, 449. 
Black Dog of Newgate, 449. 
Black Hawthorn Lane, 288. 
Black Jack, 430, 446. His Cave, in Leigh, 446. 
Black Jack's Hole, 446. 
Blackstone Cave or Hermitage, 305, 306. 
Black's Well, in Knightwick, 443. 
Blackwell, in Tredington, 356. 

Blockley, and Hamlets of Blockley, Aston, and Dorn, 354, 355 
Boc, alias Puck, 428. 
Bockleton, 258. 

Boggilde Street, or Buckle Street, 316, 317, 473. 
Boleyn, Sir Thomas, his spectre, 465, 466. 
Bordesley, 331, 332. 
Bottom, the weaver, 422. 
Boundaries of fields, Anglo-Saxon, 402, 403. 
Bow Bridge, in Ripple ; paved trackway from thence to the Mythe Tute, 65, 

66, 67. 
Bracelets, Anglo-Saxon, 111, 112. 
Bradley, in Fladbury, 346. 
Bradley and Stoke, or Stock, 320. 



178 

Bransford, in Leigh, 241. 

Brants (see Upton), 283. 

Bredicot, 294. Roman urn and coins, 95, 96. Curious ring, 90, 97. Wood- 
cut of the urn, 95. Woodcuts of the ring, 96. 

Bredon, and its chapelries of Norton and Cutsdean, and the hamlets of Bre- 
don, Hardwick-with-Mitton, Kin sham, and Westmancote, 345. 

Bredon Hill, Conderton Camp in Overbury, and Roman coins, 84. 

Bredon Hill, Kemerton Camp, 78 to 84. Ancient granary, charred or parched 
wheat, and land-slip, 78 to 81. Banibury Stone, 80. Silver earring, 
and woodcuts, 83, 84. Etymology of Bredon, 84. Particular account 
of the Camp and the Bambury Stone, 363 to 366. Woodcuts of the 
Camp and Stone, 365. 

Bretforton, in Badsey, 336. 

Brickworks, site of Roman, in Soddington, in Mamble, 146, 147, 148. 

Bride Stones, 367. 

Brimfield, Co. Hereford, 259, 260. 

Broadwas, 250. 

Broadway, 322, 473. 

Brockhampton, Co. Hereford, near Linton, 352. 

Brockhampton, Co. Hereford, near Bromyard, 255. 

Bromsberrow, Co. Gloucester ; Conygree Hill, 70, 71, 218. 

BromsgTove, 312, 313. The ballad of the Jovial Hunter, 114 to 123. Harry- 
ca-nab, 115, 116, 123. Wish, or wisked, or spectre hounds, 123. 
Callow, 123. Derivation of the name Bromsgrove, 122, and App., 471. 

Broome, 271. 

Broughton Hackett, 325. 

Brownies, 415, 433. 

Brown Willy, 433. 

Buckle Street or Boggilde Street, 316, 317, 464. 

Budden Hill, and Budden Hill Common Field, in Castle Morton, 71, 281. 
Derivation of " Budden," App., 471, 472. 

Bunyan, his signet ring ; the prison where he was incarcerated, and anec- 
dotes of him, 207 to 212. Woodcuts of the ring, 209. Engraving of 
the prison, Plate V., 208. 

Bushley, 279. 

Bustards, extinct in England, 321. 

Cad, and Cadbury, 338. 

Cakebold, 271. 

Cakemore, in Hales Owen, 273. 

Caldwell, 305. 

Callow, 123. 

Callow's Grave, 259. 

Callow Hill, 123. 

Callow's Leap, 248, 448. 

Camps, small intermediate, 317, 318. 

Caractacus, 157, 213. 

Carausius, 335. 

Carent, Cerent, or Carron River, 334, 335. 

Castle, ancient spots so called, 399, 400. 



479 

Castle Hill, Worcester; ancient British, Roman, and Saxon relics found there, 
15 to 23. Engraving of them, Plate I., p. 18. 

Castle Morton, or Morton Folliot; Tumulus, 71. Ancient seal, 71, 72. 
Woodcut of the seal, 71. Castle, 72. Parish, 281. Budden-hill, App., 
471, 472. Gog, 472. 

Cat, mysterious black, 460, 461, 462. 

Catterhall (see Alfrick), 247. 

Catshall, and Coneygree, in Ombersley, 295. 

Cave, remarkable (see Upton), 60, 61. Caves generally, and ancient granaries, 
60, 61. Thumb-ring, found at Saxons' Lode, 61, 62. Woodcut of it, 
62. 

Celts, engravings of those found at Castle Hill, in Worcester, 18 ; at Om- 
bersley, 98 (described in 108, 109) ; at Astley, 98 (described in 112, 
113); at Ribbesford, 98 (described in 146) ; at Holt, 98 (described in 
149) ; at Grimley, 98 (described in 150) ; at Bevere Island, 98 (de- 
scribed in 151, 152) ; at Malvern Link, 167. 

Chadbury Ferry, 346. 

Chaddesley Corbett, 124 to 135, 271. Etymology of Tan Wood, 124. Barrow 
Hill, 124, 125, 126, with a woodcut of it, 125. Ran Dan Woods, 
etymology of, 125, 126. Astwood Hill, 126. Places of the name of 
Ton, and etymology of the name, 127. Sarn or Sern Hills, Yarn and 
Darn Hills, etymology of, 128, 129, 130. Robin Hood, his probable 
time and birth-place, 130 to 135, 423, 429, 430. 

Chaddlewick, or Chadwick, 361. 

Channelled or grooved Roman tiles (see Sidbury), 26. 

Chapters in this work. See Contents, Introduction, pp. ix., x., xi. 

Charred or parched wheat, in ancient granaries, 78 to 81. 

Chaseley, 276. 

Chastleton, Co. Oxford, 355. 

Chipping Camden, camp, 319. 

Church Hill, near Kidderminster, 272. 

Church Hill, near Bredicot, 326. 

Church Honeybourne, relics found there. The Quinton Way. The game of 
quintain, &c, 88, 89, 90, 316, 317, 322, 473. 

Church Lench, 340. 

Cinder Point, in Pitchcroft, near Worcester, 2, 3. 

Cinders, probably Roman, 3, 143. 

Claines, 293, 294. 

Clevelode, in Maddersfield, 285. 

Cleeve Prior, Roman jar and coins, 91 to 94. Rycknield Street, 337. 

Clent, Roman relics, 135, 136. Ancient names, and etymology of Clent, 
271, 272. 

Clifton-upon-Teme, 251, 252, 253. 

Clopton, in the parish of St. John, in Bedwardine, 262, 263, 473. 

Cnap, 417. 

Cneph, 417. 

Cob, 416, 451. 

Cobley and Tutnal (see Tardebig), 341. 

Cockshoot (see Great Malvern), 283, 284. 

Codeston, or Cutsdean (see Bredon), 345, 354. 



480 

Cold Harbour, 138 to 142, 295. 

Cold Place, Lulsley, 142. 

Cold Wells, 159. 

Coll Hills, and Wall Hills (see Malvern Hills), 158, 159. 

Collington, Co. Hereford, 258. 

Colwall, 155, 156, 157, 283. 

Colwall Stone, 159. 

Comberton, 346. 

Comberton, and Hurcott (see Kidderminster), 305. 

Coles, Old, 462 to 465. 

Colt, Pixy, 414. 

Conderton Camp, in Overbury, on Bredon Hill, 84. 

Constantine the Great (see Kempsey Camp), 57, 58. 

Conygree Hill (see Bromsberrow), 70, 71, 218. 

Cop, 416. 

Com, parched or charred (see Bredon Hill), 78 to 81. 

Coronet of gold found in Colwall, 155 to 158. 

Coston, or Cofton Hackett, 313. 

Gotheridge, 262, 473. 

Cradley, Co. Hereford, 256. Mobled, 437, 438. 

Cradley, in Hales Owen, 273. 

Cremation, or burial by burning, 56, 57. 

Crisp, or Bobin Good-fellow, 423. 

Croces, in Sychampton, in Ombersley, 295. 

Croft Ambrey, Co. Hereford, 367. 

Cromwell's contract, 222. 

Croomb D'Abitot, 291. 

Crookberrow, in Pendock, and in the Berrow, 217. 

Cropthorne, 346. 

Crowle, Danish relics, 94, 95. Derivation of, 294, and App., 472. 

Crows, or ravens, mysterious, 448, 466. 

Cruckbarrow Hill, or Crugbarrow, in Whittington ; description and etymology 

of it, 216 to 220. 
Cudley, in Spetchley, 292, 293. 

Cuggan Hill, now the Bound Hill, in Spetchley, 219, 292. 
Cutsdean, or Codeston, 345, 354. 

Daddock, 468. 

Dane skins, on a former door of Worcester Cathedral, &c. &c, 40 to 51. En- 
graving of the door, Plate II., 50. 
Danes (see Alfrick), 194 to 199. 
Danegelt, 202. 

Darlingscott, in Tredington, 356. 
Darn Hills, 128, 129, 130. 
Daylesford, 355. 
Deadloons, in Leigh, 240. 

Deerhurst, Co. Gloucester, 187, 188 ; and App., 472. 
Defford, 346. 

Devil's Bit (see Stanford), 268. 
Devil's Dream, 460. 



481- 

Devil's Den, 267, 462. 

Devil's Leap, 250, 251. 

Devil's Pig-trough, 240, 440, 445. 

Devil's Spadeful, or Spittleful, 305, 306. 

Devonshire spectre, 464. 

Diglis, Eoman urn and other relics found there, 28, 29. Woodcut of the urn, 
29. Barbed bronze spear-heads, and woodcuts, 30, 31, 32. 

Dikes and roads, Anglo-Saxon, in Worcestershire, App., 473. 

Dob, 415, 466, 467. 

Dobbies, 414, 415. 

Dobbin, 415, 467. 

Dodenham, 250. 

Doderhill, 311. 

Dolday, in Worcester, 4. 

Dole (see Alfrick), 248. 

Domesday Survey, 53. 

Dormston, 321. 

Dorn, British and Eoman relics found there, and derivation of the name, 87, 
355. 

Dover, Mr. Robert, his Olympic games on the Cotswold Hills, 319, 320. 

Doverdale, 270, 312. 

Droitwich ; Bo man urns, fibulae, tesselated pavement, coins, Roman nails, and 
other relics found there, 98 to 103. Engraving of the inns, Plate IV., 
Nos. 1 and 2, p. 98. Site of encaustic tile works, 103 to 106. Droit- 
wich, formerly Saltwic, 310. Royal dues on salt in Anglo-Saxon times, 
310, 311. St. Peter's parish, and St. Andrew's parish, 320. 

Druids' eggs, or adder gems, 252. 

Druidical circles, 376, 377. 

Dripshill, or Tripshill, in Maddersfield, 285, 440, 447. 

Dryp, the fairy, 439. 

Dudley, etymology of, 143. Grey Stone Field, 144. 

Durgie (duergar), 438. 

Dyniock, Co. Gloucester, 352. 

Eabl's Croomb, 291. 

Eastham, 268. 

Echo, a very distinct one, 447. 

Eckington ; Roman and Roman British relics found there, and woodcuts of 
them, 74. Ad Antonam, 75. Woller's Hill, and Nafford; Anglo- 
Saxon mark, 345. 

Edvin Loach, 258. 

Egg, or Agg, 244. 

El or Ell, various names with that prefix, 225. 

Elbury Hill, description and etymology of it, 223, 224, 225. Camp, 224. 
Various names with the prefix " El," 225. 

Eldersfield ; Gadbury Banks, 68. Etymology of the latter, 69. Probably the 
site of an ancient British town, 68, 69, 70. Derivation of the name, 
276. 

Elf, 434, 435, 451. 

Elizabeth, Queen, portrait of, 243. 



482 

Elkin, or little gods, 225, 226, 435. 

Elmbridge, 270. 

Elmley Castle parish, Starnhill, Old White Way, Windsend Mound, aud 

Horse Camps, 327, 328. 
Elrnley Lovett, 304. 

Emsorah, in Africa, 376. Stone circles, 376, 377. 
Encaustic tile works, site of, near Droitwich, 103 to 106, 189. 
Encaustic tile works, site of, at Great Malvern, 189. 
Eoten or Oughton Wells, in Alfrick, 246, 434, 435. 
Eotenford, Etford, Dorset, 451. 
Est, or Ast (see Astwood), 226. 
Eternal Waggoner, or Night Eaven, 433, 434. 
Ethelred and Ethelflaed, Duke and Duchess of Mercia, 194 to 202. 
Evenload, 355. 
Evesham, 336 ; and App., 472, 473. 

Fairy rings, 456, 457, 458. Fairies' caves, 418, 420, 448. 

Feckenham, 321. 

Fetch, 449, 450. 

Fibulae ; engravings of those found at the Castle Hill, Worcester, Plate L, 
p. 18 ; at Kempsey, woodcuts, pp. 54, 55 ; at Holt, No. 7, p. 98 
(described in p. 149). 

Fields, general observations relative to the ancient names of, 401, 402. Anglo- 
Saxon boundaries of fields, 402, 403. 

Fiend horses, 412. 

Fladbury and Bradley, 346. 

Flaying, punishment of, 41 to 49. 

Flaying knife, or hone, probably ancient British, 148, 149. Woodcuts of it, 
149. 

Flyford Flavell, 325. 

Fogs, electricity of, 468, 469. 

Folk-lore, 409 to 470. 

Foss-way, 354 to 358. 

Four Shire Stone, Danish and Saxon battle field, and ancient barrow, 85, 86, 
355. 

Frankley, 313. 

Gadbury Banks, in Eldersfield, also other places named Gadbury or Gad, 

68, 69, 70. 
Gad-whip, 69. 
Gauntlet sword, 223. 
Giant's Grave, 306. 
Giant's Throw, 144, 145. 

Gloucester (Glebon Colonia), antiquities and derivation, 333. 
Godwald, Saint, site of a chapel of, at Sidbury, Worcester, 25. 
Gog, 281, and App., 472. 
Grafton-super-Flivord, 325. 

Granaries, ancient and modern, and caves, 78 to 81. 
Grant, a goblin so called, 414. 
Great Malvern (see Malvern, Great), 283, 284. Also, Malvern Hills. 



483 

Great Alne, Co. Warwick, 337. 

Great Hampton, 336. 

Great Witley, 265. 

Greek coins found at The White Ladies, Worcester, and at Acton Scott, 

Shropshire, 5 to 13. 
Grey Stone Field, Dudley, 144. Grey stones, 396. 
Grim, the fairy, 438, 449 to 452, 455. 
Grimesdic, App., 472. 
Grimley, stone celts found there, 150. Engravings of them, Plate IV., 

Nos. 8, 9, 10, p. 98. 
Grimley parish, 264. 

Grimsend, in Alfrick, 440, 445. Grimes Hill (see Hallow), 264. 
Grooved or channelled Roman tiles, found at Sidbury, Worcester, 26, 27. 

Habbe or Hob Lench, 340. 

Hadsor, 320. 

Hagley, 136 to 142. Wichbury Hill Camp, and Roman relics, 136, 137, 
Ancient barrows, 137. Harborough, 138. Hoar-stone Brook, Kings- 
head Land, and singular image, 138, 139. Stones used by slingers, 
138, 139. Etymology of Harborough and Cold Harbour, 139 to 142. 
Etymology of Hagley, 272. 

Hag (see Suckley), 244. 

Hales Owen; Portway; Roman cinders; Quintan; Oldbury, &c, 142, 143, 
272. 

Hales Owen, Township, 273. 

Hallow, 263. 

Hampton, Great and Little, 336. 

Hampton Lovett, 270. 

Hanbury, 320. 

Hanley Castle, 283. 

Hanley Child, or Lower Hanley, 259. 

Hanley William, or Upper Hanley, 259. 

Harbour, and Cold Harbour, places so called, 138 to 142. 

Hardwick (see Bredon), 345. 

Harry-ca-nab (see Bromsgrove), 115, 116, 123. 

Hartlebury, 113, 303. 

Harvington, 339, 340. 

Hatfield (see Norton-juxta-Kempsey), 292. 

Hawkestones, 367. 

Hayden Way, 330. 

Heart burial, 32, 33. 

Heightington (see Rock), 266. 

Hell Hole, places so called, 267, 268, 462. 

Herefordshire Beacon Camp, on Malvern Hills, 154, 155. A coronet of 
gold found near there, 155, 156, 157 ; and a pot of Roman coin, 159, 
to 163. 

Hills, account of, 152 to 238 ; and see Introduction, p. vi. 

Hill Cromb, 291. 

Hill Hampton, 251. 

Himbleton, 325, 473. 



484 

Hinlip, 295. Smite, and Cold Harbour, 139 to 142. 

Hoar Stones, and places and things called by the name of Hoar ; etymology of 

the name, 383 to 397. 
Hoar Stone, in Tedstone Delamere, Co. Hereford, 142. 
Hob, 409, 412, 413, 414, 418, 423, 424, 452. 
Hob and his lantern, 412, 423. 
Hobanys lantern, 412, 423. 
Hobelers, 413. 
Hobby, 412. 
Hoberd, 413. 
Hoberdy, 409. 
Hoberdy's lantern, 412, 423. 
Hobgoblin, 412, 420, 423. 
Hobin, 414. 
Hobs Hoth, 413. 
Hob-thrush, 424. 
Hob Well, 283. 
Hodening, 412. 
Hodington, 325. 

Hogmore Hill, and Ogmore, 261, 262. 
Hole Stones, and Logan Stones, 369, 370, 381, 382. 
Holt, a bronze celt and fibula found there, 149. Engraving of them, Plate IV., 

Nos. 6 and 7, p. 98. 
Holt with Little Witley, 264. 
Holy Cross, Pershore, 326. 

Hone, or flaying knife, ancient British, 148, 149. Woodcuts of it, 149. 
Honeybourne, Church, 88, 89, 90, 316, 317, 322, 473. 
Honger, 65. 

Hop, the fairy, 438, 439, 452. 
Hoppe, 412, 432. 

Horse Camps (see Elmley Castle), 328. 
Hounds, Yell, Yeth, or spectre, 256. 
Hounds, a pack of, bewitched, 460, 461, 462. 
Human skin on church doors, 40 to 51. 
Humberston, Co. Leicester, 368 to 371. 
Hurcott, and Comberton (see Kidderminster), 305. 
Hypocaust, site of a Eoman, at Sidbury, Worcester, 23 to 27. 

* 

Iccomb, or Icombe Camp, Co. Gloucester, 85, 355. 

Icknild Street (see Eycknield Street), 346. 

Ignis fatuus, and cause of it, 409, 410, 411, 468, 469, 470. 

Illustrations in this work (see list of them in the Introduction), pp. xiii., xiv. 

Imp, and Impy, 424, 452. 

Inkberrow, 321. Fairies, 419. 

Inlip, or Hindlip, and Alcrinton (now Alfreton), 295. 

Ipsley, Co Warwick, 337. 

Iron nails, Roman (see Droitwich), 103. 

Itinera in this work (see Introduction), pp. v., vi., vii., viii. 

Jack, 409, 431 



485 

Jack-o'-Lantern, 412, 430. 
Janus, Temple of, shut, on a coin of Nero, 4. 
Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove, 114 to 123. 
Judgment, ancient seats of, 128 to 130, 153, 154. 
Jumper's Hole, 257. 

Kelpies, 468. 

Kemerton Camp (see Bredon Hill Camp), 78 to 84. 

Kempsey, Roman camp, and cists or burial ground at ; fibulae, pottery ; inscrip- 
tion in honour of Constantine the Great ; bronze spear-head, 54 to 60. 
Woodcuts of the fibulae, 54 55 ; of the pottery, 56 ; of the spear-head 
60. Kempsey parish, 292. 

Kenswick, in Wichenford, 360. 

Kenvaur or Kinver Edge, 144, 145. 

Keys, ancient, 20. Engraving, Plate I., No. 16, p. 18. 

Kidderminster ; legend ; Caldwell ; Mitton ; Foreign of Kidderminster ; Hur- 
cott and Comberton ; Devil's Spadeful ; Giant's Grave ; Wribbenhall, 
charter of land, 304 to 307. 

Kingshead Land, 274, 

Kington, 321. 

Kings Norton, 339. 

Kinsham (see Bredon), 345. 

Kistvaen, 242. 

Kit, and Kit's Cotty House, 242, 243. 

Knap, and Kneph (see Old Storage), 193, 417. 

Knife, ancient British, 151, 152. 

Knighton, 269. 

Knightwick, 250. 

Knockers, 436. 

Knop, 417. 

Kop, 416. 

Kyre Wyre, 259. 

Lady Lightfoot's spectre, 464. 

Land-slips (see Bredon Hill), 78. 

Layamon's " Brut," 157, 158, 303 ; App., 471. 

Leaden chest, for heart burial, 32, 33. 

Ledbury, Co. Hereford, 275; 353. 

Leigh, 240, 241. Dead Loons, 240. The Devil's Pig-trough, 241, 444. 

Fairy names there, 440 to 443. 
Lench, Church, "^ 

„ Sheriffs, 

„ Atch, 

„ Bous, 

„ Abbot's, or Hob, or Habbe, 
Lenchwick (see Abbot's Norton), 339. 
Licke, the fairy, 438, 439, 450. 
Lickhill, 439. 

Lincomb, in Astley, ancient British celt, 112, 113 ; and engraving of it in 
Plate IV., No. 4, p. 98 ; also see App., 472, as to the derivation of the name. 



486 

Lindridge ; ancient hone, or flaying knife, 148, 149. Woodcut of it, 149. 

Toothill, 232, 260. Derivation of Lindridge, App., 472. 
Linton, Co. Hereford, 352. 
Little Comberton, 326. 
Little Hampton, 336. 

Little Malvern, 154 to 163, 283. Also, Malvern Hills. 
Littleton, Middle, 337. 
Littleton, North, 337. 
Littleton, South, 336, 337, 473. 
Little Washborn, 335. 
Little Witley, Holt with, 264. 
Logan Stones, and Hole Stone, 381, 382. 
Longdon, 281. 

Low Hill, formerly Oswaldslow, 220, 221. 
Lower Areley, or Areley Kings, 304. App. 471. 
Lower Deviation Salt-way, 314, 315, 323 to 329. 
Lower Mitton, 304. 
Lower Salt-way, 314 to 323. 
Lower Sapey, or Sapey Pritchard, 258. 
Lowesmoor, 35. Etymology, 36. 
Lull, the fairy, 438, 450, 452, 453. 
Lulsley, 249, 250. Puttocks-end, or Puttocks-inn, derivation of, 249, 250. 

Fames' Cave there, and fairy names, 418, 419, 440, 443 to 446. 

Etymology of Lulsley, 446. Large yew tree there, 447. 
Luttley, in Hales Owen, 273. 

Mab, Queen, 437, 438. 

Mab-led, or mobled, 437, 438. 

Madresfield, or Maddersfield, 285. 

Malvern Hills, 153, to 189. Etymology of Malvern, 153, 154. 

Herefordshire Beacon Camp, and Colwall, 154, 155, 156. Coronet 
of gold, 155 to 158. Caractacus, 157. Layamon's " Brut," 157, 
158. Names of places with the prefix "Wall," and "Col" or 
" Cold," 158, 159. Colwall Stone, 159. Pot of Koman coins found 
near the Herefordshire Beacon, 159 to 163. 
Midsummer Hill Camp, 163. The Eidgeway; mistletoe on an oak 
there, 163, 164. Mistletoe in an ancient British coffin at Scar- 
borough, 164. 
Worcestershire Beacon; ancient British cinerary urn, found on the 
summit of it, 165, 166. Woodcuts of the urn, 165. Twinbarrow, 
166. Celt found at Malvern Link, 166, 167. Woodcut of it, 167. 
Boman coins, 167. Radnor and Rad, 167. The legend of Saint 
Werstan and the first Christian establishment at Great Malvern, 
167 to 188. Four woodcuts upon the subject, taken from a 
painted glass window in Great Malvern Abbey Church, 173, 175, 
177, 179. Alney Isle, 188, 189. Site of encaustic tile works, 
189. Refectory, 189. 

Malvern, Great, parish of ; Hob-well ; Twinbarrow, Radnor, and Rad ; Cock- 
shoot, and derivation of, 283, 284. 

Malvern, Little, 154 to 163, 283. 



487 

Mamble and Soddiiigton, 140 to 148, 269. 

Manorial customs (see Ombersley), 296 to 303. 

Man without a head, 444, 445, 464. 

Marks, Anglo-Saxon, 203, 228, 229. 

Marlcliff, in Warwickshire, 337. 

Marl pits in Britain in the Koman times, 320. 

Martin Hussintree, 295. 

Martley, 213, 251. 

Mathon, 255. Yell and Penfield, 256. 

Mauthe Doog, 449. 

Meon Hill, Co. Gloucester, 318, 319. Questions as to its derivation, 319. 

Middle Littleton, 337. 

Midsummer Hill Camp (see Malvern Hills), 163, &c. 

Mistletoe (see Malvern Hills), 163, 164. 

Mitton (see Bredon), 345. 

Mitton, in Kidderminster, 305. 

Moanland, in Pixham, in Powick, 287. 

Moduses (see Suckley), 245. 

Mole crickets, 411. 

Morton Folliot, or Castle Morton, 71, 72. Seal, and woodcut, 71. 

Much Marcle, Co. Hereford, 352. 

Mythe Tute, near Tewkesbury, 65, G6, 291. 

Nafford, 345. 

Nails, Boman (see Droitwich), 103. 

Names, ancient, of fields, 226, 401, 402. 

Naunton Beauchamp, 326. 

Newbold, 356. 

Newland Common (see Sal warp), 109, 110, 111. 

Newland, near Great Malvern, 287. 

Night Baven, or Eternal Waggoner, 433. 

Nixies, 436. 

Nornies, 442. 

Northfield, 313. 

North Littleton, 337. 

North Pidelet, 325. 

Northwick on the Foss, 355.. 

Norton Abbots, and Lenchwick, 339. 

Norton, in Bredon ; Anglo-Saxon relics found there, 76, 77. Engraving of 

them, Plate III., 76. Norton, in Bredon parish, 345. 
Norton-juxta-Kempsey, 292. 

Oberon, 414, 420, 456. 

Oddingley, 324. 

Offenham, 90, 339. 

Ogham Stones, 262. 

Ogmore, or Hogmore, 261, 262. 

Oldberrow, or Oldborough, derivation of, and of Cadborough, 338. 



488 

Oldbury, near Worcester, 34, 35. 

Oldbury Gardens, near Tewkesbury, 34. 

Oldbury, places so called, 397 to 399. 

Old Coles, 462, 463, 464. 

Old Hob, 412. 

Old Storage, its etymology, 190 to 193. St. Augustine's Oak, 191. Sacred 

boundaries and customs at Bealtine, or Paletein, or Belton, 191, 192, 

193. 
Old Swinford, 273. Derivation of, App., 472. 
Old White Way, or Welsh Way, 327. 
Olympic games on the Cotswold Hills, 319, 320, 433. 
Ombers Hill, or Ambers Hill, in Leigh, 240, 366, 440. 
Ombersley, Eoman camp and pottery ground, 106 to 108. Etymology of the 

name, 107, 371, 372, 440, 441. Castle Hill, 108. Ancient British 

celt, 108 ; and an engraving of it, Plate IV., No. 3, p. 98. Ombersley 

parish ; Catshall, and Coneygree ; Croces and Stewards, in Sychamp- 

ton, Uphampton ; Allies, in Borley ; manorial customs, 295 to 303. 
Ore's, 434. 

Organs Hill, etymology of, 304. 
Orleton, a hamlet of Eastham, Co. Worcester, 268. 
Orleton, Co. Hereford, 260. 
Osebury Bock, in Lulsley, 212, 213. Fairies' Cave there, and Witches' Oven, 

418, 443 ; etymology of the name, 443. 
Ossian, 111, 112, 335. 
Ostorius, sites of forts of, 1, 2, 344, 345. 
Oswaldslow, on the boundary of Wolverton, in Stoulton, now called Low 

Hill, 220, 221. 
Oughton, or Eoten Wells, in Alfrick, 246, 434, 435, 447. 
Ovens, ancient (see Stoke Prior), 111, 112, and Suckley, 244. 
Over Arley, or Upper Arley ; Portway ; Camp ; Castle ; etymology of the 

name, 145, 307, 308 ; and App., 471. 
Overbury ; Conderton Camp, 84. Carent, or Cerent Biver ; Carausius, 334, 

335. 
Owen Glyndwr, 214. 
Ox, bones of an extinct species of, found at Diglis, 28. 

Paletein, or Belton (see Old Storage), 191, 192, 193. 

Parcse, fates, or destinies, 442. 

Parched or charred wheat, in ancient granaries, 78 to 81. 

Patch or Pach, the fairy, 438, 448, 449, 453. 

Patch Hill, in Alfrick, 448. The like in Leigh, 440. 

Pauntley, Co. Gloucester, 352. Custom there resembling the Scotch Beltein, 
353. 

Paved track- way, old, 64 to 68. 

Pavements, ancient, 128, 129, 130, 153, 154. 

Pedmore, 272. 

Penates, Boman, 13, 14. With a woodcut of Angerona, 14. 

Pendock Portway, 70. Derivation of Pendock, 218 ; and App., 472. Pen- 
dock parish, 278, 279. 

Penfield, and the Yell, in Mathon, 255, 256. 



489 

Pensax, in Lindridge, 267. 

Peopletcm, 326. 

Perdeswell (see Barrow Cop), 229, &c. 

Perry Wood, or Pirie Wood, 222 ; ancient trench road there ; Cromwell's 

contract with the devil ; camp ground ; gauntlet sword, 222, 223. 
Pershore ; St. Andrew, and Holy Cross, parishes of, 326. 
Pharises, or fairies, 418, 420. 
Pigmies, 458. 
Pigwiggen, 441. 

Pin, with a double point, 20, 21, 22. Engraving of it, Plate I., No. 17, p. 18. 
Pin, the Mry, 438, 453. 

Pinck, or Pink, the fairy, 435, 436, 438, 453, 467. 
Pinket, the fairies so called in Badsey, 435, 436. 
Pins Hill, in Leigh, 441. 
Pip, the fairy, 438, 453, 454. 
Pirton parish, 292. 
Pixies, 436, 437. 
Poake-ledden, 418. 
Pooka, or Phooka, 426, 427, 428. 
Pooten's Hole, in Hanley Child, 259, 424. 
Portiields Boad, near Worcester, 9, 23. 

Portway, from Kenchester to Worcester, and thence to Over Arley, 286 to 290, 
Portways, summary of, 405. 
Pottery, Boman, slate-coloured ; how made, 29. 
Pottery ground, Boman, at Bipple, 62, 63, 64. 
Powick, Boman sepulchral inn found there, and woodcut of it, 73. Bidgeway, 

287, 288. Black Hawthorn Lane, 288. The ignis fatmis seen in 

Powick, 409 to 411. Also, see App., 473. 
Puck needle, 425. 

Puck, Poke, Poake, Pouk, Pouque, Powk, &c, 418, 420, 422 to 429. 
Pugfist, Puckfoist, or Puckball fungus, 425, 426. 
Pugs Hole, in the parish of Bromsgrove, 424, 466. 
Puttoeks-end, or Pothooks Inn, 249, 250, 443. 

Queen Elizabeth, original portrait of (see Suckley), 243. 

Quince Hill (see Alfrick), 246, 247. 

Quintan, in Hales parish, 143. 

Quinton, Upper and Lower," and Quinton Field, 318, 319. 

Quinton Way, and game of quintan, 88, 89, 80. 

Badnor and Bad (see Great Malvern), 167, 283, 284. 

Ban Dan Woods, in Chaddesley Corbett, and Belbroughton, 125, 126. 

Bang-tang, or tang-rang (see Chaddesley Corbett), 125, 126. 

Bavens or Crows, mysterious, 448, 466. 

Baven Hills (see Alfrick), 194 to 199. 

Baven, standard of the, 194 to 199. 

Beceipt, curious, 458. 

Bed Cliff, in Leigh, 440, 446. 

Bed deer, antlers of, found at Diglis, 29. 

Bedstone Ferry Hermitage, 303. 

L L 



490 

Refectory site of, at Great Malvern, 189. 

Bibbesford, and Bewdley ; celt, 146. Engraving of it, Plate IV., No. 5, p. 98. 

Ribbesford parish, 304. 
Ridgacre, in Hales Owen, 272. 
Ridgeway, in Powick, and in St. John, in Bedwardine ; probably a branch of 

the Rycknield Street, 287, 288, 289. 
Ridgeway, or Rycknield Street, 329 to 354. 
Ridgeway, the (see Malvern Hills), 163, 164. Mistletoe on an oak there, 163, 

164. 
Ridgeway s, summary of, 404, and see App., 473. 

Rid Marley D'Abitot ; derivation of the name, 218, 276, and App., 472. 
Ring, curious, and woodcuts of it (see Bredicot), 96, 97. 
Rings (see Fairy rings), 456 to 458. 
Ripple and Twyning ; Roman pottery ground at Bow Farm, Ripple, 62, 63, 

64, 291. Towbury Hill Camp, in Twining, 64. Ancient track-way, 

64 to 67. Bow Bridge, 67. Alluvium, accumulation of, since the 

time of the Romans, 67, 68. 
Roads, ancient, and Salt-ways (see a list of them in the Introduction), pp. vi., 

vii., viii. 
Roads and dikes, Anglo-Saxon, in Worcestershire. See App., 473. 
Robin, and Robert, 423. 
Robinet, 443. 

Robin Good-fellow, 418, 420 to 423. 
Robin Hood (see Chaddesley Corbett, as to various places called by his name), 

130 to 135 ; and Folk-lore, 418, 423, 429, 430. 
Rochford, a speculatory there, 268. 

Rock, or Aka ; sorb-tree ; Quicken or Witten Pear-tree, 266. 
Roman and Greek coins, found at The White Ladies, Worcester, and at Acton 

Scott, in Shropshire, 5 to 13. 
Roman brick works, site of, at Soddinton, 146 to 148. 
Roman pottery ground (see Ripple and Twyning), 62, 63, 64. 
Roman penates, with a woodcut of Angerona, 13, 14. 
Romsley, in Hales Owen, 273. 

Rosebury, or Rosemary, or Osebuiy Rock, 212, 213. 
Round Hill, in Spetchley, 219, 222. 
Rous Lench, 340. 
Rushock, 271, and App., 472. 
Rycknield Street, or Ridgeway, 329 to 354. Derivation of the name, 347. 

Sacked boundaries and customs (see Old Storage), 191, 192, 193. 

St. Andrew's, Droitwich, 320. 

St. Andrew's, Pershore, 326. 

St. Augustine's Oak, 191, 205, 206, 207, 215, 266. 

St. Clement's Church, the former, Worcester, relics of, supposed to be late 
Saxon or early Norman, 36 to 39. Woodcut of it, 38. 

St. Godwald, 25. 

St. John, in Bedwardine, 261, 262, 263. Hogmore or Ogmore Hill, deriva- 
tion of, 261, 262. Ogham stones, 262. Clopton, 262, 263, 473. Bedwar- 
dine, derivation of, 263. Ridgeway, 288, 289. 

St. Kenelm's, 136. 



491 

St. Martin's parish, Worcester, 293. 

St. Peter's parish, Worcester, 293. 

St. Peter's parish, Droitwich, 320. 

St. Werstan, legend of (see Malvern Hills), 167 to 188 ; and woodcuts, 173 
175, 177, 179. 

St. Wolstan's seal, 51, 52, 53. Woodcut of it, 52. 

Sale Green, 323. 

Sale, places so called, 321. 

Salinse of the Romans, most probably Droitwich, 98, 310. 

Salt, royal dues in Anglo-Saxon times, 310, 311. 

Salt-way, Upper, 309 to 316. 

Salt-way, Lower, 314, 316 to 323. 

Salt-way, Lower Deviation, 314, 323 to 328. 

Saltwic (see Droitwich), 310, 311. 

Salwarp, trench road there, 109, 110. Anglo-Saxon graves, 110, 111. Anglo- 
Saxon boundaries, 311. 

Sapey, Lower, or Sapey Pritchard, 258. 

Sapey, Upper, Co. Hereford, 258. 

Sarn or Sern Hills, 128, 129, 130. 

Sarn Hill, in Bushley, 128, 279. 

Saxons' Lode (see Upton), 61, 62. 

Sea shells in the native gravel bed under the Castle Hill, Worcester, &c, 23. 

Sedgebarrow, or Sedgeberrow, British and Roman relics found there, 85, 335, 

336, and App., 472. 
Seven Whistlers, the, 459. 
Severn Stoke, 291. 

Shelsley Beauchamp, or Great Shelsley, 254. 
Shelsley Kings, 254. 
Shelsley Walsh, or Little Shelsley, 254. 
Shenstone, 304. 

Shepley, in the parish of Bromsgrove, 332. 
Sheriff's Lench, 340. 
Shipston-on-Stour, 356. 
Shrawley, 265. 
Sib, the fairy, 438, 450, 454. 
Sibhay, or Tibhay, 447. 

Sidbury, or Southbury, 15, 23 to 26. Ancient British coin found on Green 
Hill, and woodcut of it, 26 ; Roman coins and Roman hypocaust, 23 
to 27. Etymology of Sidbury, 27, 28. 
Slate-coloured Roman pottery, with a woodcut, 29. 
Sleepers' Den, in Lower Mitton, 304. 
Small intermediate camps, 317, 318. 
Smite, 141, 295. Babel's Hill, 295, 319. 
Soddington, in Mamble ; Roman relics, and site of Roman brick works, 146, 

147, 148. 
Solihull, Co. Warwick, 339. 
Sorb-tree (see Rock), 266. 
South Littleton, 336, 337, 473. 
Southstone Rock (see Stanford), 267. 

Spear-head of bronze, barbed (see Diglis), 30, 31. Woodcut of it, 30; and of 
one in the British Museum, 31. 



492 

Spear-head (see Kempsey), 59, 60. Woodcut of* it, 60. 

Speculate ries (see Shrawley), 265, (and Eochford), 268. 

Spetchley, Cudley, Cuggan Hill, Swineshead or Swinesherd, 292, 293, 294. 

Spriglits, 458, 466. 

Spunkies and spunk, 467, 468. 

Standard of the raven (see Alfriek), 194 to 199. 

Stanford ; Southstone Kock and legend ; Hell Hole, Devil's Den, Devil's Bit, 
267, 268. 

Starn Hill, in Elmley Castle parish, 128, 327. 

Staunton, 276. 

Stewards, in Sychampton, in Ombersley, 296. 

Stockton, ancient intrenchnients, &c, 148, 266. 

Stoke Bliss, 258. 

Stoke Prior; Anglo-Saxon bracelets, ancient ovens, &c, 111, 112, 312, 473. 

Stoke, or Stock, and Bradley, 320. 

Stone, with the hamlet of Shenstone, 304. 

Stone axe, ancient British (see Grimley), 150 ; and engraving of it, Plate IV., 
No. 10, p. 98. 

Stoney Morton, or Abbot's Morton, 340, 473. 

Storage or Storridge, Old, 190 to 193. 

Stoulton, 326. 

Stourbridge parish, 273. 

Stourport, 345. 

Streets, summary of places so called, 406. 

Strensham, trench road there, 75, 76. 

Stromkerl, or boy of the stream, 439. 

Suckley, 241. Bant or Bante, an ancient division of land, 203, 204, 242. Kit, 
places so called, and derivation of, 242. Queen Elizabeth, original 
portrait of, stating the day of her birth, 243. Places whose names 
have the prefix " Eg," or " Egg," 244. Moduses on small tithes, 245. 

Sutton, in Tenbury, 259. 

Swan Maidens, 459. 

Swinford, Old, 273. 

Tad (see Toot Hills), 235, 236. 

Tadmoor, hi Castle Morton, 281. 

Tang-rang, or rang-tang, 125, 126. 

Tan Wood, in Chaddesley Corbett, 124, 125, 126. 

Tapenhall, Tapenhale, or Tapenhole (see Claines), 294. 

Tardebig, derivation of, 341. Tutnal, and Cobley, and Bentley, 341. 

Teddington (see Overbury), 334, 335. 

Tedstone Delamere, Co. Hereford, 258. 

Tenbury, 259. 

Tewkesbury, Co. Gloucester ; antiquities found there, 334. 

Thor, 113. His hammer, 307. 

Thornbury, Co. Hereford ; Wall Hills Camp, 258. 

Thoth, 193, 417. 

Thumb-ring (see Saxons' Lode), Upton, 61, 62. Woodcut of it, 62. 

Tib, the fairy, 438, 450, 454. 

Tibhay, or Sibhay, 447. 

Tibia, 447. 



493 

Tibberton, 294. 

Tib's Hill, in Bransford, 440. 

Tick, the fairy, 438, 454. 

Tickenhill, Roman gold coin found there, 146. Derivation of the name, App., 

472. 
Tidmington, 356. 

Tiles, Roman, grooved or channelled, 26, 27. 
Timberdine (see St. Peter's Parish, Worcester), 293. 
Tin, places so called ; and etymology of the name, 127. 
Tinker's Cross, in Leigh, 442. 
Tinna Geolane, or Will-o'-the-Wisp, 427. 
Tit, the fairy, 438, 454. 
Titania, 456. 
Tom Thumb, 438, 450. 
Tollardine (see Claines), 294. 

Toot Hills, 232 to 236. Etymology of, 233 to 236, 417. 
Tores of the Celts (see Barrow Cop), 229 to 232. 
Tors, (see Old Storage), 190, 191. 

Towbury Hill (see Ripple and Twyning), 64, (and Folk-lore), 441. 
Track- way, ancient paved (see Ripple and Twyning), 64 to 67. 
Track-way, the Western, 290 to 309. 

Tredington, including the hamlets of Blackwell, and Darlingscott, 356, 473. 
Tredington, Co. Gloucester, Rudgeway, 334. 
Trip, the fairy, 438, 454, 455. 

Trips Hill, or Drips Hill, in Maddersfield, 285, 440, 447. 
Trots Hill, Troshill, or Toots Hill, in Warndon, 223, 294. 
Tuckbold, or Jack-o-Lantern, 427. 
Tuck Hill, in Hanley Child, 259. 
Tutnall, Tetnal, or Tootenhill, alias Oak Fields, 232. 
Tutnal, and Cobley, 341. 
Tweezers, Roman, found at the Castle Hill, Worcester, 19, 22. Engravings 

of it, Plate I., Nos. 12 and 13, p. 18. 
Twinbarrow, Great Malvern, 166, 283. 
Twinkling Will, the Northern Waggoner, 433, 434. 
Twyning, Co. Gloucester, 62 to 67, 291. 
Tyrian coins, and woodcuts of them (see Ambrosi6e Petrse), 378, 379. 

Ullingswick, Co. Hereford, 257. 

Uphampton, in Ombersley, 296. 

Upper Arley, or Over Arley, Co. Stafford, 145, 307, 308. App., 471. 

Upper Mitton ; Organs Hill ; and etymology of it, 304. 

Upper Salt-way, 309 to 316. 

Upper Sapey, 258. 

Upton Snodsbury, 325. Fairies' cave there, 419, 420. 

Upton-upon- Severn, the Upocessa of Ravennas ; remarkable cave or well 

found there, 60, 61. Thumb-ring at Saxons' Lode, and woodcut of it, 

61, 62. Upton parish, 283. 
Upton Warren, 311. 
Urchins, 457. 
Urn, ancient British, found at the Worcestershire Beacon, Malvern Hill ; and 

woodcuts of it, 165. 



494 

Vineyards, sites of ancient, 101, 407, 408. 

Waggoner, the Eternal, or Night Raven, 433, 434. 

Wains, or Covini, 278. 

Wain Street, derivation of, 277, 278. 

Walking fire, 421, 422, 423. 

Wall Hills and Collhills (see Malvern Hills), 158, 159. 

Wall Hills Camp, Co. Hereford, 274, 275, 277, 280, 282. 

Walton Cardiff, Co. Gloucester, 333. 

Wap, the fairy, 438, 439. 

Waresley, in Hartlebury, 304. 

Warley Wigorn, in Hales Owen, 272. 

Warley Salop, in Hales Owen, 272. 

Warndon, Trotshill, Troshill or Tootshill, and Smite, 294, 295. 

Warning light, 469. 

Wash-beetle, 432. 

Washbourn, Little (see Overbury), 334. 

Warwick, anciently Waerinc, 37 to 40. 

Wassal Hill and Kenvaur or Kinver Edge Canrps, Battle Stone, Bolt Stone, 

and the Giant's Throw, 144, 145. 
Wears, formerly on the Severn, 34. 
Welland, 283. 

Welsh Way, or Old White Way, 327. 
Werstan, the legend of (see Malvern Hills), 167 to 188 ; and four woodcuts, 

173, 175, 177, 179. 
Western Track- way, 290 to 308. 
Westmancote (see Bredon), 345. 
Whistlers, the Seven, 459. 
Whistling Hill, in Ireland, 459. 

Whitbourne, Co. Hereford, ancient intrenchment and camp, 213, 251. 
White Ladies, Worcester, Greek and Roman coins found there, 5 to 13. 
White Ladies Aston, 326. 
White Way, Old, or Welsh Way, 327. 
Whittington, 216, 292, 293. 
Wiccia, the province of, 198. 
Wichbold (see Doderhill), 311. 
Wichbury Hill, in Hagley, 136, 137, 138. 
Wichenford, Roman coins found there, 149, 150, 264, 360. 
Wick, Wich, or Wiccia ; places so called, and derivation of the name, 358 to 363. 
Wick, Upper, and Lower, 262, 287, 288. 
Wickhamford, 336. 
Wick Waryn, near Pershore, 361. 
Wiggen, fairies so called, 441 . 
Wiggen Ash, 441, 442. 
Wilkin, 432, 433. 
Will, 409, 431, 432, 433. 
Willington, in Barcheston, Co. Warwick, 356. 
Will-o'-the-Wisp, 409, 411, 422, 431, 432, 433. 
Win, the fairy, 438, 441, 455. 
Win's Grave, in Leigh, 441, 
Wish, or wisked, or spectre hounds, 123, 437. 






495 

Wishmoor, in Whitboum, 437. 

Witchcraft, 460, 461, 462. 

Witchery Hole, 462. 

Witches' Oven, in Osebury Eock, Lulsley, 418. 

Witley, Great, 265. Witley, Little, with Holt, 264. 

Witten Tree (see Eock), 266. 

Wizzards, 459. 

Woden, 283, 324, 437. Wontesdic, 264. 

Wollers Hill (see Eckington), 345. 

Wolstan's seal, 51, 52, 53. Woodcut of it, 52. 

Wolverley, 307. 

Wolverlow, Co. Hereford, 258. 

Wolverton, 220. 

Woodbury Hill; ancient camp, commonly called Owen Glyndwr's Camp, 
214. 

Woodmanton (see Clifton-on-Teme), 251 to 253. 

Worcester, 1 to 54. The Bravinium of the Eomans, 1 to 4. A supposed fort 
of Ostorius there, 1, 2. Cinder Point, in Pitchcroft, 2, 3. Coin of Nero, with 
the Temple of Janus shut, 4. Eoman and Greek coins, found at The 
White Ladies, 5 to 11. Greek coins, found at Acton Scott, Shropshire, 
9 to 13. Eoman penates, 13, 14. Woodcut of Angerona, 14. Sidbury, 
or Southbury, 15. Castle Hill; British celt; Eoman relics; and 
Eoman, Saxon, and other coins found there, 15 to 23. Engraving of 
them, Plate I., p. 18. Sea shells, in the native gravel bed under the 
Hill, 23. Portfields Eoad, 23. Eoman hypocaust, at Sidbury, 23 to 27. 
Site of St. Godwald's chapel, 25.' Ancient British coin found at Green 
Hill, Sidbury, 25, 26. Woodcut of it, 26. Grooved or channelled 
tiles, found in the hypocaust, 26, 27. Etymology of Sidbury, 27, 28. 
Eoman slate-coloured and other pottery and relics, fragments of the 
Bos longifrons, and of the red deer, found at Diglis, 28, 29, 30 ; 
with a woodcut of one of the urns, 29. Eemarkable barbed bronze 
spear-head found below Diglis, 30, 31 ; with a woodcut of it, 30 ; 
and of one in the British Museum, 31. Leaden chest, probably for 
heart burial, 32, 33. Wears, formerly on the Severn, 34. Oldbury, 
34, 35. Ancient British period, 35. Lowesmoor, etymology of, 35, 
36. Saxon period ; Anglo-Saxon gold coin, 36 to 40 ; with a wood- 
cut of it, 37. The former St. Clement's Church, with a woodcut, 37, 
38. Dane skins on' the old door of Worcester Cathedral (and on other 
churches), and the punishment of flaying, 40 to 51, with an engraving 
of the door. (See Plate II., p. 50.) The west end of the nave of the 
Cathedral, probably Anglo-Saxon, 49 to 51. Wolstan's seal, 51, 52, 
53. Woodcut of it, 52. Domesday Survey, 53. Worcester burnt by 
the Danes, 198. Ethelred and Ethelfieed's charter to Worcester, granted 
most probably at Worcester, in the presence of Alfred, 198 to 201. They 
signed charters by making a cross, 201, 202. Worcester burnt in 
Hardicanute's time, 202. Etymology of Worcester, 33, 204, 359. 
Worcestershire, when first so called, 204. 

Worcestershire Beacon (see Malvern Hills), 165, 166. Ancient British cinerary 
urn found there, 165, 166. Woodcuts of it, 165. Eoman coins, 167. 

Wribbenhall, 305, 306, 307. 



496 



Wyre Pidelet, 326. 

Wysham, Sir Ralph (see Clifton-on-Teme), 251, 252, 253. 

Wytcliall, 361. 

Yardley, 339. 

Yarn Hills, and Darn Hills, 128, 129, 130. 

Yell and Penfield (see Mathon), 255, 256. 

Yell Hounds, or Yetli Hounds (see Mathon), 256. 

Yew trees, remarkable, 70, 447. 




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i^ARTWRIGHT. — Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Mechanical Inventions of 
^ Edmund Cartwright, D.D., F.R.S., inventor of the Power Loom, fyc. Post 8vo, 
engravings, bds. 2s. Gd. (original price 10s. 6d.) 

It contains some interesting literary history, Dr. his Legendary Tale of "Amine and Elvira" (given 

Cartwright numbering among his correspondents, Sir in the Appendix) testifies; Sir W. Scott says it con- 

W Jones, Crabbe, Sir H. Davy, Fulton, Sir S. Baffles tains some excellent poetry, expressed with unusual 

Langhorne, and others; he was no mean Poet, as felicity. 

"OORMAN. — The Autobiography and Personal Diary of Dr. Simon Forman, the 
■*• Celebrated Astrologer, 1552-1602, from unpublished MSS. in the Ashmolean Mu- 
seum, Oxford. Edited by J. O. Halliwell. Small 4to, sewed. 5s. 

Only 150 copies privately printed. It will form a companion to Dr. Dee's Diary, printed by the Camden 
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RICHARDSON. — Extracts from the Literary and Scientific Correspondence of 
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This is a very interesting volume, and contains much eighteenth century. It was printed for private cii> 

curious matter respecting the state and progress of culation only (at the expense of Miss Currer, of Eshton 

Botany, the study of Antiquities and General Litera- Hall), and copies have found their way into but few 

ture, &c, in Great Britain, during the first half of the collections. 

LIFE, POETRY, AND LETTERS of EBENEZER ELLIOTT, 
the Corn Law Rhymer (of Sheffield). Edited by his Son-in-Law, John Wateins, 
post 8vo, cloth,- (an interesting volume). 3s. (Original price 7s. 6d.) 

OCOTT. — Extracts from the Letter-Book of William Scott, Father of the Lords 
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Richabdson. Post 8vo, sewed, is. 6d. 

ALCUIN OF BRITAIN — The Life of Alcuin, the Learned Anglo-Saxon, and 
■**• Ambassador from King Offa, to the Emperor Charlemagne. By D. F. Lobenz, 
Translated by Slee. 12mo, pp. 280, cloth. 2s. (Original price 6s.) 

"I^TESLEY. — Narrative of a Remarkable Transaction in the Early Life of John 
" " Wesley, now first printed from a MS. in the British Museum. 8vo, sewed. 2s. 
A very curious love affair between J.W. and his housekeeper; it gives a curious insight into the early economy 

Of the Methodists. It is entirely unknown to all Wesley's biographers. 3 

rPHE CONNECTION OF WALES with the Early Science of England, 
■*• illustrated in the Memoirs of Dr. Robert Recorde, the first Writer on Arithmetic, 
Geometry, Astronomy, &c, in the English Language. By J. O. Halliwell. 8vo. 
sewed. Is, 



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OEMI-SAXON.— The Departing Soul's Address to the Body, a Fragment of a 
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100 PRIVATELY PRINTED. 2$. 

-DICTIONARY OF ARCHAIC AND PROVINCIAL WORDS, 

■*-' Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Eeign of Edward I. 
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of 1000 pages, closely 'printed in double columns, cloth, a new and cheaper edition. £1. 1*. 
It contains above 50,000 words (embodying all the are not to be found in ordinary Dictionaries and books 
known scattered glossaries of the English language), of reference. Most of the principal Archaisms are il- 
forming a complete key for the reader of our old Poets, lustrated by examples selected from early inedited 
Dramatists, Theologians, and other authors, whose MSS. and rare books, and by far the greater portion 
works abound with allusions, of which explanations will be found to be original authorities. 

■pSSAYS ON THE LITERATURE, POPULAR SUPERSTI- 

-*- J TIONS, and History of England in the Middle Ages. By Thomas Wright, M.A., 
F.R.S. 2 vols, post 8vo, elegantly printed, cloth. 16s. 

Contents. — Essay I. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. II. Anglo- Rush, and the Frolicsome Elves. XI. On Dunlop's 
Norman Poetry. III. Chansons de Geste, or Historical History of Fiction. XII. On the History and trans- 
Eomances of the Middle Ages. IV. On Proverbs and mission of Popular Stories. XIII. On the Poetry of 
Popular Sayings. V. On the Anglo-Latin Poets of History. XIV. Adventures of Hereward the Saxon, 
the Twelfth Century. VI. Abelard and the Scholastic XV. The Story of Eustace the Monk. XVI. The His- 
Philosophy. VII. On Dr. Grimm's German Mythology. tory of Fulke Fitzwarine. XVII. On the Popular Cycle 
VHI. On the National Fairy Mythology of England. of Robin-Hood Ballads. XVIII. On the Conquest of 
IX. On the Popular Superstitions of Modern Greece, Ireland by the Anglo-Normans. XIX. On Old English 
and their Connexion with the English. X. On Friar Political Songs. XX. On the Scottish Poet, Dunbar. 

EARLY HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 
Illustrated by an English Poem of the XlVth Century, with Notes. By J. O. 
Halliwell, Post 8vo, Second Edition, with a facsimile of the original MS. in the 
British Museum, cloth. 2s. 6d. 

" The interest which the curious poem, of which which is not common with such publications. Mr. 
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proved by the fact of its having been translated into increased its utility by the addition of a complete and 
German, and of its having reached a second edition, correct glossary."— Literary Gazette. 

^TORRENT OF PORTUGAL; an English Metrical Bomance, now first pub- 
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at Manchester. Edited by J. O. Halliwell, &c. Post 8vo, cloth t uniform with Bitson, 
Weber, and Ellis's publications. 5*. 

"This is a valuable and interesting addition to our bling to a modern reader, yet the class to which it 
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Weber, and Ellis." — Literary Gazette. importance. To the general reader it presents one 

"A literary curiosity, and one both welcome and feature, viz., the reference to Wayland Smith, whom 
serviceable to the lover of black-lettered lore. Though Sir W. Scott has invested with so much interest." — 
the obsoleteness of the style may occasion sad stum- Metropolitan Magazine. 

TJ ARROWING OF HELL; a Miracle Play, written in the Eeign of Edward 
■*--*■ II, now first published from the Original in the British Museum, with a Moder.n 
Reading, Introduction, and Notes. By James Orchard Halliwell, Esq., E.R.S., F.S. A., 
&c. 8vo, sewed. 2s. 

This curious piece is supposed to be the earliest glish Poetry ; Sharon Turner's England ; Co/Jier'3 
specimen of dramatic composition in the English Ian- History of English Dramatic Poetry, Vol. II, p. 213. 

tuage ; vide Hallam's Literature of Europe, Vol. I; All these writers refer to the Manuscript. 
trutt's Manners and Customs, Vol. II ; Warton's En- 

"VTUG-iE POETIC A; Select Pieces of Old English Popular Poetry, illustrating the 
-*-^ Manners and Arts of the XVth Century. Edited by J. O. Halliwell. Post 8vo, 
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Contents: — Colyn Blowbol's Testament; the De- Lobe, Henry VHIth's Fool; Romance of Robert of 
bate of the Carpenter's Tools; the Merchant and Sicily; and five other curious pieces of the same 
his Son; the Maid and the Magpie ; Elegy on kind 

A NECDOTA LITERARIA : a Collection of Short Poems in English, Latin, 
-*■*- and French, illustrative of the Literature and History of England in the Xlllth 
Century ; and more especially of the Condition and Manners of the different Classes of 
Society. By T. Wright, M.A., F.S.A., &c. 8vo, cloth, only 250 printed. 7s. 6d. 

pOP v ULAR ERRORS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR, particularly in 

•*- Pronunciation, familiarly pointed out. By G-eoege Jackson. 12mo, Third 
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John Russell Smith, 36, Soho Square, London. 

"C 1 ARLY MYSTERIES, and other Latin Poems of theXlIth and XHIth centuries. 
•*-* Edited, from original MSS. in the British Museum, and the Libraries of Oxford, 
Cambridge, Paris, and Vienna, by Thos. Weight, M.A., F.S.A. 8vo, Ids. 4s. 6d. 

" Besides the curious specimens of the dramatic on the people of Norfolk, written hy a Monk of Peter- 
style of Middle-Age Latinity, Mr. Wright has given horough, and answered in the same style by John of 
two compositions in the Narrative Elegiac Verse (a St. Omer ; and, lastly, some sprightly and often grace- 
favourite measure at that period), in the Comcedia ful songs from a MS. in the Arundel Collection, which 
Babionis and the Geta of Vitalis Blesensis, which form afford a very favourable idea of the lyric poetry of 
a link of connection between the Classical and Middle- our clerical forefathers."— Gentleman's Magazine. 
age Literature: some remarkable Satyrical Khymea 

T> ARA MATHEMATICA ; or a Collection of Treatises on the Mathematics and 
-"-^ Subjects connected with them, from ancient inedited MSS. By J. O. Halliwell. 
8vo, Second Edition, cloth. 3s. 

Contents .— Johannis de Sacro-Bosco Tractatus de Duration of Moonlight, from a MS. of the Thirteenth 

Arte Numerandi ; Method used in England in the Century ; on the Mensuration of Heights and Dis- 

Fifteenth Century for taking the Altitude of a Steeple; tances ; Alexandri de Villa Dei Carmen de Algorismo ; 

Treatise on the Numeration of Algorism; Treatise on Preface to a Calendar or Almanack for 1430; Johanni3 

Glasses for Optical Purposes, by "W. Bourne ; Johannis Norfolk in Artem progressionis summula; Notes on 

Robyns de Cometis Commentaria; Two Tables showing Early Almanacks, by the Editor, &c. &c. 
the time of High Water at London Bridge, and the 

PHILOLOGICAL PROOFS of the Original Unity and Eecent Origin of the 
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and America. By A. J. Johnes. 8vo, cloth. 6s. {original price 12s. 6d.) 

Printed at the suggestion of Dr. Prichard, to whose works it will be found a useful supplement. 
A MERICANISMS.— A Dictionary of Americanisms. A Glossary of Words and 
•**- Phrases colloquiallyused in the United States. ByJ.B.BARTLETT. Thick 8vo, cloth. 12s. 
PHILOLOGICAL GRAMMAR, founded upon English, and framed from a 
-*- comparison of more than Sixty Languages,' being an Introduction to the Science of 
Grammar, and a help to Grammars of all Languages, especially English, Latin, and Greek. 
By the Eev. W. Barnes, B. D., author of the "Anglo-Saxon Delectus," "Dorset 
Dialect," &c. Post 8vo, in the press. 



protoimtal Bialects oi €itslanU. 

THBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST of all the Works which have been published 
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Post 8vo. 1*. 

" Very serviceable to such as prosecute the study of our provincial dialects, or are collecting works on that 
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HALLIWELL'S HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PRO- 
VINCIAL DIALECTS OP ENGLAND. Illustrated by numerous Examples, 
(extracted fromthelntroduction to the Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words) 8vo. 2*. 

(GLOSSARY OF PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL WORDS USED 

" IN ENGLAND ; by F. Grose, F.S.A. ; with which is now incorporated the Sup- 
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The utility of a Provincial Glossary to all persons de- would be entirely a work of supererogation. Grose 
sirous of understanding our ancient poets, is so uni- and Pegge are constantly referred to in Todd's " John- 
versally acknowledged, that to enter into a proof of it son's Dictionary." 

COENWALL. — Specimens of Cornish Provincial Dialect, collected and arranged by Uncle 

Jan Treenoodle, with some Introductory Eemarks and a Glossary by an Antiquarian 

Friend, also a Selection of Songs and other Pieces connected with Cornwall. Post 

8vo. With curious portrait of Dolly Pentreath. Cloth. 4*. 
CHESHIEE. — Attempt at a Glossary of some words used in Cheshire. By Eogeb 

Wilbraham, F.A.S., &c. 12mo, Ids. 2s. 6d. (original price 5s.) 
DEVONSHIRE.— A Devonshire Dialogue in Four Parts, (by Mrs. Palmer, sister to Sir 

Joshua Reynolds) with Glossary by the Eev. J. Phillipps, of Membury, Devon. 

12mo, cloth. 2s. 6d. 
DOESET. — Poems of Eural Life, in the Dorset Dialect, with a Dissertation and Glossary. 

By the Eev. William Barnes, B.D. Second Edition, enlarged and corrected, 



royal 12mo, cloth. 10s. 
ine poetic feeling is displayed tl 
s in this volume; according tc 
thing has appeared equal to it since the time of in length. 



A fine poetic feeling is displayed through the various Burns; the " Gentleman's Magazine" for December, 
pieces in this volume; according to some critics no- 1844, gave a review of the First Edition some page* 



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DURHAM. — A G-lossary of Words used in Teesdale, in the County of Durham. Post 
8vo, with a Map of the District, cloth. Qs. 

"Contains about two thousand words ... It is be- guage and literature ... the author has evidently 

lieved the first and only collection of words and brought to bear an extensive personal acquaint- 

phrases peculiar to this district, and we hail it there- ance with the common language." — Darlington 

lore as a valuable contribution to the history of Ian- Times. 

ESSEX. — John Noakes and Mary Styles : a Poem ; exhibiting some of the most striking 
lingual localisms peculiar to Essex ; with a Glossary. By Chaeles Claek, Esq., of 
Great Totham Hall, Essex. Post 8vo, cloth. 2s. 

" The poem possesses considerable humour.-^Taif .» " Exhibits the dialect of Essex perfectly."— Eclectic 

Magazine. Review. 

" A very pleasant trifle " — Literary Gazette. " Pull of quaint wit and humour." — Gent's Mag., 

"A very clever production." — Essex Lit. Journal. May, 1841. 

"Full of rich humour." — Essex Mercury. "A very clever and amusing piece of local descrip- 

" Very droll." — Metropolitan. tion." — Archaeologist, 

KENT. — Dick and Sal, or Jack and Joan's Fair: a Doggrel Poem, in the Kentish Dialect. 
Third Edition. 12mo. 6d. 

LANCASHIRE. — Dialect of South Lancashire, or Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary ; 
revised and corrected, with his Rhymes, and an enlaegked Glossaey of Words and 
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Lancashire. By Samtjee Bamfoed. 12mo, cloth. 3s. 6d. 

LEICESTERSHIRE Words, Phrases, and Proverbs. By A. B. Evans, D.D., Head, 
Master of Market- _B osworth Grammar School. 12mo, cloth. 5s. 

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.— The Dialect andFolk-Lore of Northamptonshire : a Glossary 
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stitions, Ancient Customs, Proverbs, &c. By Thomas STEENBEEa. 12mo, 
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SUSSEX. — A Glossary of the Provincialisms of the County of Sussex. By W. Dueeant 
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SUSSEX. — Jan Cladpole's Trip to 'Merricur in Search for Dollar Trees, and how he got 
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WESTMORELAND AND CUMBERLAND.— Dialogues, Poems, Songs, and BaUads, 
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lected ; to which is added, a copious Glossary of Words peculiar to those Counties. 
Post 8vo, pp. 408, cloth. Qs. 

Thi9 collection comprises, in the Westmoreland Dia- the Cumbrian Bard (including some now first printed) ; 

led, Mrs. Ann Wheeler's Four Familiar Dialogues, VII. Songs by Miss Blamire and Miss Gilpin; VIII. 

with Poems, &c.; and in the Cumberland Dialect, 1. Songs by John Rayson ; IX. An Extensive Glossary of 

Poems and Pastorals by the Rev. Josiah Ralph ; II. Westmoreland and Cumberland Words. 
Pastorals, &c, by Ewan Clark; III. Letters from 

Dublin, by a young Borrowdale Shepherd, by Isaac All the poetical quotations in " Mr. and Mrs. Sand- 

Ritson; IV. Poems by John Stagg; V. Poems by Mark boy's Visit to the Great Exhibition," are to be found 

Lonsdale ; VI. Ballads and Songs by Robert Anderson, in this volume. 

WILTSHIRE. — A Glossary of Provincial Words and Phrases in use in Wiltshire, showing 
their Derivation in numerous instances trom the Language of the Anglo-Saxons. By 
John Yonge Akeeman, Esq., E.S.A. 12mo, cloth. 3s. 

YORKSHIRE. — The Yorkshire Dialect, exemplified in various Dialogues, Tales, and 
Songs, applicable to the County ; with a Glossary. Post 8vo. Is. 

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pieces of composition are not only harmless, but good Riches and Poverty have much of the freedom and 

and pretty. The eclogue on the death of ' Awd Daisy,' spirit of Bums. " — Gentleman's Magazine, May 

an outworn horse, is an outpouring of some of the best 1841. 

YORKSHIRE.— The Hallamshire {district of Sheffield) Glossary. By the Rev. Joseph 
Htjntee, author of the History of " Hallamshire," " South Yorkshire," &c. Post 
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YORKSHIRE. — Bairnsla Eoak's Annual, on onny body els as beside fort 'y years 1842 
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Record, or the Book of Facts and Fancies, by Ned Nut. 12mo, pp. 100. 1*. 

YORKSHIRE.— Sum Thowts abaght Ben Bunt's Weddin ;— Tom Treddlehoyle's Thowts 
abaght Nan Bunt's Chresmas Tea Party, &c. Two Pieces, {Barnsley Dialect.) 
12mo. 6d. 



John Russell Smith, 36, Soho Square, London, 

A RCHiEOLOGICAL INDEX to Remains of Antiquity of the Celtic, Romano- 
•**- British, and Anglo-Saxon Periods, by John Yong-b Akerman, Fellow and Secretary 
of the Society of Antiquaries. 8vo, illustrated with numerous engravings, comprising 
upwards of five hundred objects, cloth. 15s. 

This work, though intended as an introduction and rows— Urns — Swords— Spears — Knives— Umhones of 

a guide to the study of our early antiquities, will, it is Shields — Buckles — Fibulae — BuUee — Hair Pins — 

hoped, also prove of service as a hook of reference to Beads, &c. &c. &c. &c. 

the practised Archaeologist. The contents are as fol- The Itinerary of Antoninus (as far as relates to 

lows: Britain). The Geographical Tables of Ptolemy, the 

Past I. Celtic Pebiod. — Tumuli, or Barrows Notitia, and the Itinerary of Richard of Ciren- 
and Cairns— Cromelechs— Sepulchral Caves — Rocking cester, together with a classified Index of the con- 
Stones — Stone Circles, &c. &c— Objects discovered in tents of the Arch^eologia (Vols, i to xxxi) are given 
Celtic Sepulchres — Urns — Beads — Weapons — Imple- in an Appendix, 
ments, &c. 

Part II. Romano-British Period.— Tumuli of " One of the first wants of an incipient Antiquary, 

the Romano-British Period — Burial places of the Ro- is the facility of comparison,' and here it is furnished 

mans — Pavements — Camps — Villas — Sepulchral him at one glance. The plates, indeed, form the most 

Monuments — Sepulchral Inscriptions — Dedicatory In- valuable part of the book, both by their number and 

Bcriptions — Commemorative Inscriptions — Altars — the judicious selection of types and examples which 

Urns — Glass Vessels — Fibulae — Armillee — Coins — they contain. It is a book which we can 4 on this ac- 

Coin-moulds, &c. &c. count, safely and warmly recommend to all who are 

Part III. Anglo-Saxon Period.— Tumuli— De- interested in the antiquities of their native land." — 

tailed List of Objects discovered in Anglo-Saxon Bar- Literary Gazette. 

TJEMAINS OF PAGAN SAXONDOM, principally from Tumuli in En- 
-*•*' gland, drawn from the originals. Described and Illustrated by J. Y. Akebman, 
F.S.A. 4to, Publishing in Parts at 2s. 6d. each. 

"TJIRECTIONS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ENGLISH 

-*-' ANTIQUITIES, especially those of the Three First Periods j or Hints for the In- 
experienced. By J. Y. Akeeman. 

A small tract for distribution, at one shilling per dozen, useful to give to excavators, ploughmen, &c, who are 
apt to destroy articles they iiud if not of precious metal. 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 8yo, vols. 2, 3, 4, 

-*■■*- 5, 6. £1. 1*. each; and vol. 7 just completed, with an extra quantity of letter-press 
and plates. £1. lis. 6d. 

J. R. Smith having been appointed Publisher to the Archaeological Association, their Publications may be 
had of him in future. 

"DRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.— A Report of the 

-*-* Proceedings of the British Archseological Association, at the Worcester Session, 
August, 1848. By A. J. Dtjnkin. Thick 8vo, with engravings, cloth. £1. Is. 

"\f ERBATIM REPORT of the Proceedings at a Special General Meeting of tbg 

* British Archaeological Association, held at the Theatre of the Western Literary 
Institution, 5th March, 1845, T. J. Pettigrew, Esq., in the Chair. With an Introduction 
by Thomas Weight. 8vo, sewed. Is. 6d. 

A succinct history of the division between the Archaeological Association and Institute. 

A NTIQUARIAN ETCHING CLUB.— The Publications of the Anti- 
■**- quarian Etching Club, for the year 1849, consisting of 54 plates of Churches, Fonts, 
Castles, and other Antiquarian objects. 4to, boards. 8s. 

for the year 1850, containing 6Q plates. 4to, Ids. 10s. 

for the year 1851, containing 70 plates. 4to, bds. 10s. 

yESTIGES op THE ANTIQUITIES OF DERBYSHIRE, 

* and the Sepulchral Usages of its Inhabitants, from the most Eemote Ages to the 
Reformation. By Thomas Bateman, Esq., of Yolgrave, Derbyshire. In one handsome 
voL 8vo, with numerous woodcuts of Tumuli and their contents, Crosses, Tombs, 8$c, 
cloth. 15s. 1848 

AN ESSAY ON THE ROMAN VILLAS of the Augustan Age, their 
•£*- Architectural Disposition and Enrichments, and on the remains of Eoman Domes 
tic Edifices discovered in Great Britain. By Thomas Moule. 8vo, 2 plates, cloth, 
4?. 6d. {original price 8s.) 



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RELIQULZE ANTIQUDE EBOEACENSIS, or Belies of Antiquity, relat. 
ing to the County of York. By W. Bowman, of Leeds, assisted by several eminent 
Antiquaries, 4to, with engravings, publishing in Quarterly Farts. 2s. 6d. each. 

HHHE ROMAN WALL : an Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive Account 
-*■ of the Barrier of the Lower Isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway, 
deduced from numerous personal surveys. By the Bev. John Collingwood Bruce, F.S. A., 
Thick 8vo, Second and Enlarged Edition, with 40 plates and 200 woodcuts, a hand. 
some volume, half morocco. £1. Is. — A few Copies on Large Paper, 4to, £2. 2s. 

" Following the impulse of a fresh interest in remains or the works of Archaeologists upon our Roman r& 

of the Roman age, recently excited amongst English mains, especially those which relate to his immediate 

Arch8eologists,Mr. Bruce has now supplied a desidera- subject." — Spectator. 

turn in Antiquarian literature, by producing a Treatise, " In taking leave of Mr. Bruce's work, we may express 

in which he has happily combined much of the in- a hope that oiu- brief notice of some of its attractions 

formation gathered by previous writers, with a mass may promote its circulation. The author's stvle ren- 

of original and personal observations." — Journal of ders it highly readable, the facts he has collected will 

the Archceologxcal Institute,Vol viii, p. 105. make it useful for reference, and its portability, and 

" The Roman Wall is a very elaborate and pains- the clear arrangement of the subject-matter, should 

taking work, on one of the most interesting of British introduce it as a companion to all who may desire to 

antiquities. Mr. Bruce is a man of learning, whether study fully one of the noblest monuments of our 

as regards Roman history, in connection with Britain, country." — Gentleman's Magazine. 

"OELIQUIiE ISU&IANiE : the Eemains of the Eoman Isurium, now Ald- 
•*-*' borough, near Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, illustrated and described. By Henry 
Eoroyd Smith. Boyal 4to, with 37 plates, cloth. £1. 5s. 



N" 



■ ■ The Same, with the Mosaic pavements coeottred, cloth. £2. 2s. 
The mo3t highly illustrated work ever published on a Roman Station in England. 

TYESCBIPTION OF A EOMAN BUILDING, and other Remains, dig- 
" covered at Caerleon, in Monmouthshire. By J. E. Lee. Imperial 8vo with 20 
interesting Etchings by the Author, sewed. 5s. 

OTITIA BRITANNIA, or an Inquiry concerning the Localities, Habits, Con- 
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appended a brief Eetrospect of the Eesults of their Intercourse with the Eomans. By 
W. D. Saull, F.S.A., F.G-.S., &c. 8vo, engravings. 3s. 6d. 

A KCH^EOLOGIST AND JOURNAL OP ANTIQUARIAN 

" SCIENCE. Edited by J. O. Halliwell. 8vo, Nos. I to X, complete, with 
Index, pp. 420, with 19 engravings, cloth, reduced from 10s. Qd. to 5*. Qd. 

Containing original articles on Architecture, His- various Antiquarian Societies Retrospective Re- 
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logy, Bibliography, Topography, Proceedings of the &c. *uuau«uian worus 



Jtatttatuttrs* 



INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OP ANCIENT AND 

■*- MODERN COINS. By J. Y. Akerman, Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. 
SToolscap 8vo, with numerous Wood "Engravings from the original coins, (an excellent 
introductory book,) cloth. 6s. Qd. 

Contents: Ssct.L— Origin of Coinage.— Greek Scotch Coinage. 11. Coinage of Ireland. 12 An*lo 

Eegal Coins. 2. Greek Civic Coins. 3. Greek Im- Gallic Coins. 13. Continental Money in the Middle 

perial Coins. 4. Origin of Roman Coinage— Consular Ages. 14. Various representatives of Coinage 15 

Coins. 5. Roman Imperial Coins. 6. Roman British Forgeries in Ancient and Modern Times. 16 Table 

Coins. 7- Ancient British Coinage. 8. Anglo-Saxon of Prices of English Coins realized at Public Sales 
Coinage. 9. English Coinage from the Conquest. 10. 

'TRADESMEN'S TOKENS struck in London and its Vicinity, from 1648 to 
-*- 1671, described from the originals in the British Museum, &c. By J. Y. Akerman 
3T.S.A. 8vo, with 8 plates of numerous examples, cloth. 15s. — Large Paper in 4to' 
cloth. £l. Is. 

This work comprises a list of nearly three thousand streets, old tavern and coffee-house si°-ns &c &c 
Tokens, and contains occasional illustrative topo- with an introductory account of the causes' winch led 
graphical and antiquarian notes on persons, places, . to the adoption of such a currency. 

A NCIENT COINS OF CITIES AND PRINCES, Geographically 
■**• Arranged and Described, Hispania, Gallia, Britannia. By J. Y. Akerman 
F.S. A, Syo, with engravings of many hundred coins from actual examples, cloth, 18s, 



John Russell Smith, 36, Soho Square, London, 



pOINS OF THE ROMANS RELATING TO BRITAIN, 

^ Described and Illustrated. By J. Y. Akerman, F.S.A. Second Edition, greatly 
enlarged, Svo, with plates and woodcuts. 10s. 6d. 

The " Prix de Numismatique" was awarded by the lished at a very moderate price ; it should be consulted, 

French Institute to the author for this work. not merely for these particular coins, but also for facts 

" Mr. Akerman's volume contains a notice of every most valuable to all who are interested in the Romano- 
known variety, with copious illustrations, and is pub- British History."— Archaeological Journal. 

TVTUMISMATIC ILLUSTRATIONS of the Narrative Portions of the NEW 
■^ TESTAMENT. By J. Y. Akeeman. 8vo, numerous woodcuts from the original 
coins in various public and private collections, cloth. 5s. 

" Archaeology is under a peculiar obligation _ to bute of commendation for light thrown upon Holy 
Mr. Akerman. To him more than to any other living Writ, through the medium of ; ' the unrighteous Mam- 
man, is due the praise of having converted multitudes mon." The New Testament has, it appears, in the 
to the love of antiquarian research. To him we all owe compass of the Gospels and Acts, no "less than 82 
the pleasant debt of an instructive acquaintance, not allusions to the coinage of Greece, Rome, and Judaea; 
only with the beautiful money of Ancient Greece and and these beautifully engraved, and learnedly de- 
Rome, but with the once barbarous, though not less scribed, give Mr. Akerman an opportunity of serving 
interesting, coins of our earliest history. And to him the good cause of truth in the way of his peculiar 
now especially, the cause of religion can bring its tri- avocation." — Church of England Journal. 

NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE AND JOURNAL OF THE 
NUMISMATIC SOCIETY. Edited by J. Y. Aeerman, Published Quarterly 
at 3s. 6d. per Number. 

This is the only repertory of Numismatic intelli- and countries, by the first Numismatists of the day, 
gence ever published in England. both English and. Foreign. 

It contains papers on coins and medals, of all ages Odd parts to complete sets. 

LIST OF TOKENS ISSUED BY WILTSHIRE TRADESMEN, 
in the Seventeenth Century, By J. Y. Akerman. Svo, plates, setved. Is. 6c?. 

TECTURES ON THE COINAGE OF THE GREEKS AND 

-" EOMANS, Delivered in the University of Oxford. By Edward Cardwell, D.D., 
Principal of St. Alban's Hall, and Professor of Ancient History. 8vo, cloth, 4s. 
(original price 8s. 6d.) 

A very interesting historical volume, and written in a pleasing and popular manner. 

A N OLLA PODRJDAj or Scraps Numismatic, Antiquarian, and Literary. By 
*"* Richard Sainteill, Esq., of Cork. Royal Svo, many plates and portraits, a 
handsome volume, peivately feinted, cloth. £1. lis. 6d. 

Containing Letters on the coinage of 1816 ; Memoir Ireland ; Coins of the Mint of Exeter ; Coins of Henry 

of Thomas \\ yon, jun.; on the Coronation and Guild- III; Saxon and Anglo-Norman Coins; attempt to 

hall Medals; Russian Medals; Coins found at Bea- locate Coins unappropriated by Ruding; and other 

worth ; Short and Long-Cross Pennies of Henry VII ; papers on Coins and Topegraphical and Genealogical 

Dublin Groats; Three Crowns, the ancient Arms of subjects. 

OBSERVATIONS ON A UNIQUE CUFIC GOLD COIN of the 
Fatimite Dynasty. By L. Loewe. 8vo, engraving, sewed. Is. 

HAND-BOOK OF ENGLISH COINS, from the Conquest to Victoria, 
By L. Jewitt. 12mo, 11 plates, cloth. Is. 

ISTORY OF THE COINS OF CUNOBELINE and of the ANCIENT 



H 



BRITONS. By the Key. Be ale Poste. 8vo, with numerous plates and woodcuts, 
cloth. In the Press. 



TOURNEY TO BERESFORD HALL, IN DERBYSHIRE, 

** the Seat of Charles Cotton, Esq., the celebrated Author and Angler. By 
W. Alexander, F.S.A., F.L.S., late Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum, 
Crown 4to, printed on tinted paper, ivith a spirited frontispiece, representing Walton and 
his adopted Son Cotton in the Fishing-house, and vignette title page, cloth. 5s. 

Dedicated to the Anglers of Great Britain and the various Walton and Cotton Clubs j only 100 printed. 
GRAPHIC AND HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Antiquities of Totnes, 
*-* Devon. By W. Coixos, F.S.A. Small 4to, fine woodcuts, cloth, 6s. {original 
price 10s. 6d.) 



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CAMBRIDGE. — Historia Collegii Jesu Cantabrigiensis a J. SherMANNO, olim 
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J|ELPS TO HEREFORD HISTORY, Civil and Legendary, in an Ancient 
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"MOTES ON THE CHURCHES in the Counties of KENT, SUSSEX, and 
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ACCOUNT OF THE ROMAN AND OTHER ANTIQUITIES 
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JJISTORY OF ROMNEY MARSH, in Kent,from the time of the Romans 

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CRITICAL DISSERTATION on Professor Willis's " Architectural History 
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FOLKESTONE FIERY SERPENT, together with the Humours of the 
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JJ AND-BOOK OF LEICESTER. By James Thompson. 12mo, Second 
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DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE RUINS OF L1VEDEN, 
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This Collection comprises no less than 62 Tracts of the most interesting kind, edited by M. A. Richardson, 
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are all sold by the printer. 

RIVER TYNE. — Plea and Defence of the Mayor and Burgesses of Newcastle 
against the Malevolent accusations of (3-ardiner, (author of " England's Grievance 
on the Coal Trade,") 1653 j with Appendix of Unpublished Documents respecting the 
River Tyne. By M. A. Richardson. 8vo, {only 150 printed.) 2s. 

^TOPOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDUMS for the County of Oxford. By 
| •*■ Sir Gregory Page Turner, Bart. 8vo, ids. 2s. 

NOTICES OF THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OP 
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"The neighbourhood of Banbury is equally rich in author has collected a great body of local information 
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cleared accounts. Banbury holds an important place of the numerous interesting early churches, which 
in the history of the Parliamentary War of the Seven- characterize the Banbury district." — The Archcso- 
teenth Centilry, and was the scene of the great Battle logist. 

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HISTORY OF WITNEY, with Notices of the Neighbouring Parishes and 
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HISTORY OP THE PARISH AND TOWN OP BAMPTON, 
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FAUCONBERGE MEMORIAL.—An Account of Henry Fauconberge, LL.D., 
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Learning and the Instruction of Youth ; with Notes and Incidental Biographical Sketches. 
By S. W. BlX. Pot 4to, very nicely got up, ivith 30 engravings of Old Houses, Seals> 
Autographs, Arms, Sfc, Ids. 5s. — Large Papee, 7*. 6d. (vert pew copies printed.) 

Contents.— Fauconberges of Olden Time. II. Fau- Memoir of Kobert Sparrow, Esq. Memoir of Dr. Joseph 
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IV. Fauconberge and Leman. V. Appendix, Pedigrees, of the Faueonberge Trust Estate, &c. &c. 

SUSSEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS, illustrating the His- 
tory and Antiquities of the County, published by the Sussex Archaeological Society. 
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SUSSEX GARLAND; a Collection of Ballads, Sonnets, Tales, Elegies, Songs, 
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SUSSEX MARTYRS : their Examinations and Cruel Burnings in the time of 
Queen Mary ; comprising the interesting Personal Narrative of Richard Woodman, 
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sewed. Is. 

CHURCHES OF SUSSEX, drawn by E. H. NIBB3, with Descriptions. 
84 plates, 4to, a handsome volume, cloth. £2. 2s. 

HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE ANCIENT PORT 
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HISTORY OF WINCHELSEA, m Sussex. By W.Durrant Cooper, F.S.A. 
Svo. fine plates and woodcuts. 7s. 6d. 
PHRON1CLE OF BATTEL ABBEY, in Sussex; originally compiled fa 
Latin by a Monk of the Establishment, and now first translated, with Notes, and an 



Abstract of the subsequent History of the Abbey, 
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"In no respect less interesting than Jocelin de 
Brakelond's famous Chronicle of Bury St. Edmund's 
Abbey."— Lit. Gaz. 

TJESCBIPTIVE CATALOGUE 



By Mark Antony Lowee, M.A. 



" Mr. Lower has added to the completeness of fhP 
book by a summary sketch of the History of the 
Abbey, and its succession of Abbots from the time 
when the Chronicle terminates to the period of the 
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general style of the translation, are highly cre- 
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Magazine. 

OF THE 



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TEES, GRANTS, DONATIONS, &c, constituting the Muniments of Battel 
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Memoranda of the Abbey of Battel, and Historical Particulars of the Abbots, 8vo, 
234 PAGKES, cloth. ONLY 1*. 6d. 

HAND-BOOK TO LEWES,, in Sussex, Historical and Descriptive; with 
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12mo, many engravings, cloth. Is. 6d. 

(CHRONICLES OF PEVENSEY, in Sussex. ByM. A. Lowee, 12mo, 
^-' woodcuts. Is. 

TTUESTMONCEUX CASTLE AND ITS LORDS. By the Rev. E. 

■*-•*• Venables. (Reprinted foom Vol. IV of the Sussex Archaeological Collections.) 
8vo, many engravings, sewed, 3s. ; cloth 4s. 

NOTES ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF TREVES, MAYENCE, 
WEISBADEN, NEIDEEBIEBEE, BONN, and COLOGNE. By Charles 
Roach Smith, F.S.A. (Reprinted from Vol. II of the " Collectanea Antiqua.") 8vo, with 
many engravings. 7s. 6d. 

A NNALS AND LEGENDS OF CALAIS; with Sketches of Emigre' 
-*• ■*- Notabilities, and Memoir of Lady Hamilton. By Robert Bell Calton, author 
of " Rambles in Sweden and Grottland," &c. &c. Post 8vo, with frontispiece and vignette, 
eioih. 5s. 



Principal Contents: — History of the Siege by Ed- 
ward III. in 1346-7, with a Roll of the Commanders 
and their Followers present, from a contemporary MS. 
in the British Museum ; The Allotment of Lands and 
Houses to Edward's Barons; Calais as an English 
Borough ; List of the Streets and Householders of the 
same; Henry Vlllth's Court there; Cardinal Wolsey 
and his Expenses ; the English Pale, with the Names 
of Roads, Farmsteads, and Villages in the English Era; 
the Siege of Therouenne and Tournai; the Pier of 
Calais; Pros and Cons of the Place; the H6tel 
Bes8ui; Sterne's Chamber; Churches of Notre Dame 
and St. Nicholas; the Hotel de Ville ; Ancient Staple 
Hallj The Chateau and Murder of the Duke of Glou- 



cester; the Courgain; the Field of the Cloth of Gout; 
Notice of the Town and Castle of Guisnes, and its sur- 
prise by John de Lancaster; the town and Seigneurie 
of Ardres; the Sands and Duelling; Villages and 
Chateau of Sangatte, Coulonge, Mark, Eschalles and 
Hammes; Review of the English Occupation of Calais; 
its Re-capture by the Duke de Guise; the lower Town 
and its Lace Trade; our Commercial Relations with 
France; Emigr6 Notabilities; Charles and Harry 
Tufton, Capt. Dormer and Edith Jacquemont, Beau 
Brummell, Jemmy Urquhart and his friend Faun- 
tleroy, "Nimiod," Berkeley Craven, Mytton, Duchess 
of Kingston ; a new Memoir of Lady Hamilton, &c. 



__ 



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TI/TONT SAINT-MICHEL.— Histoire et Description de Mont St. Michel en 

.LfX Normandie, texte, par Hericher, dessins par Bouet publies par Bourdon. Folio, 

150 pp., and 13 beautiful plates, executed in tinted lithography, leather bacJc^ uncut. £2. 2*. 

A handsome volume, interesting to the Architect and Archaeologist. 

GENOA; with Eemarks on the Climate, and its Influence upon Invalids. By 
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fltral&rp, ^iwalojjp, atiti Surnames. 

CURIOSITIES OF HERALDRY, with Illustrations from Old English 

Writers. By Make: Antony Lowee, M.A., Author of "Essays on English Sur- 
names;" with illuminated Title-page, and numerous engravings from designs by the Author. 
8vo, cloth. 14s. 

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line, blending with remarkable facts and intelligence, effect upon the minds and habits of mankind." — 

such a fund of amusing anecdote and illustration, that Literary Gazette. 

the reader is almost surprised to find that he has "Mr. Lower's work is both curious and instructive, 

learned so much, whilst he appeared to be pursuing while the manner of its treatment is so inviting and 

mere entertainment. The text is so pleasing that we popular, that the subject to which it refers, which 

scarcely dream of its sterling value ; and it seems as if, many have hitherto had too good reason to consider 

in unison with the woodcuts, which so cleverly explain meagre and unprofitable, assumes, under the hands of 

its points and adorn its various topics, the whole de- the writer, the novelty of fiction with the importance 

sign were intended for a relaxation from study, rather of historical truth." — Athenceum. 

"DEDIGREES OE THE NOBILITY ANP GENTRY OE HERT- 

-■- FOED SHIRE. By William Beeey, late, and for fifteen years, Registering Clerk 
in the College of Arms, author of the " Encyclopaedia Heraldica," &c. &c. Folio, (only 
125 printed.) £1. 5.?. {original price £3. 10s.) 

GENEALOGICAL AND HERALDIC HISTORY OE THE 
EXTINCT AND DORMANT BARONETCIES of England, Ireland, and Scot- 
land. By J. Btjeke, Esq. Medium 8vo, Second Edition, 638 closely printed pages, in 
double columns, with about 1000 arms engraved on wood, fine portrait of James I, and 
illuminated title-page, cloth. 10s> (original price £1. 8s.) 

This work engaged the attention of the author for ative or representatives still existing, with elaborate 
several years, comprises nearly a thousand families, and minute details of the alliances, achievements, and 
many of them amongst the most ancient and eminent fortunes ; generation after generation, from the earliest 
in the kingdom, each carried down to its represent- to the latest period. 

T^NGLISH SURNAMES. An Essay on Family Nomenclature, Historical, 
-*--■ Etymological, and Humorous ; with several illustrative Appendices. By Maek 
Antony Lowee, M.A. 2 vols., post 8vo, Thied Edition, enlarged, woodcuts t cloth. 
12s. 

This new and much improved Edition, besides a and in his chapters on the different ways in which 
great enlargement of the Chapters, contained in the particular classes of names have originated from, 
previous editions, comprises several that are entirely names of places, occupations, dignities, offices, personal 
new, together with Notes on Scottish, Irish, and and mental qualities. &c." — Spectator. 
Norman Surnames. The "Additional Prolusions," ({ ,, T „ ra *,„„'_ +„ „. ov v ^ ti^+mio ^^t n f 

S ol ',s sk S5s5r5££r sf: *•&■» •>»<* ^ fi ■«— ••-*>"<» **<**■ 

copious Index of many thousand Names. These tea- "A curious work, and got up, moreover, with that 

tures render " English Surnames " rather a new work commendable attention to paper and typography which 

than anew edition. is certain to make a book 'tak the eye. 5 

"Acurious,ingenious, and amusing book, Mr. Lower Mr. Lower has been ' at agreat feast of languages, 
brings considerable knowledge to bear, both in his and has stolen more than the ' scraps.' He both in- 
general history of the use of Surnames in England, structs and entertains."— John Bull. 

TNDEX TO THE PEDIGREES AND ARMS contained in the Heralds' 
-*■ Visitations and other Genealogical Manuscripts in the British Museum. By 
B. Sims, of the Manuscript Department. 8vo, closely printed in double columns, cloth. 15s. 

An indispensable work to those engaged in Genea- study, amusement, or professionally; those who have 
logical and Topographical pursuits, affording a ready experienced the toilsome labour of searching, with 
clue to the Pedigrees and Arms of nearly 4-0,000 of the the help only of the existing very imperfect Catalogues, 
Gentry of England, their Residences, &c. (distinguish- can appreciate the perseverance and accurate "exa- 
ingthe different families of the same name in any mination necessary to produce such an Index as that 
county), as recorded by the Heralds in their Visita« just published by Mr. Sims ; it will be an indispen- 
tions between the years 1528 to 1686. sable companion to the Library table of all students 

in genealogical pursuits, and those engaged in the 

" This work will be very acceptable to all who have History of Landed Property." — Journal of Jrckceo- 
occasion to examine theMSS. alluded to, whether for logical Institute for Septepiier, 1849. 



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"ROLL OF ARMS O* THE REIGN OF KING EDWARD II. 

•"' Edited by Sir Harris Nicolas ; to which is added, an " Ordinary" of the Anns 
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CALENDAR OF KNIGHTS; containing Lists of Knights Bachelors, British 
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from 1760 to 1828. By F. Townsend, Windsor Herald. Post 8vo, cloth. 3s. {original 
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H^HE SLOGANS OR WAR-CRIES OF THE NORTH OF 

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Origin, by John Fenwick; and Observations on Martial Mottoes, by W. Hylton 
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C* ENEALOGISTS' MANUAL ; or Guide to the various Public Records, 
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available, the charges made, the objects and dates of their Records, &c. &c. ; the whole 
carefully compiled from Returns made expressly for this work ; together with other Tables 
and Calendars useful to the Antiquary, Topographer, and Conveyancer. By Matthew 
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"DLAYING CARDS. — Eacts and Speculations on the History of Playing Cards in 
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coloured, cloth. £1. 1*. 

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suits and their marks, and the heraldic, theological, der cannot fail to be entertained by the variety of 
and political emblems pictured from time to time, in curious outlying learning Mr. Chatto has somehow 
their changes, opens a new field of antiquarian interest; contrived to draw into the investigations." — Atlas. 
and the perseverance with which Mr. Chatto has ex- " Indeed the entire production deserves our warmest 

plored it leaves little to be gleaned by his successors. approbation." — Lit. Gaz. 

The plates with which the volume is enriched add con- " A perfect fund of antiquarian research, and most 

siderably to its value in this point of view. It is not interesting even to persons who never play at cards." 
to be denied that, take it altogether, it contains more — TaifsMag. 

matter than has ever before been collected in one " A curious, entertaining and really learned book.'* 

view upon the same subject. In spite of its faults, — Rambler. 

TTOLBEXN'S DANCE OF DEATH, with an Historical and Literary 
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ancient bedstead at Aix-la-Chapelle, with a Dance of Death carved on it, engraved by 
Fairholt, cloth. 9s. 

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qiute extraordinary. — They are indeed most truthful." quise perfection.— Langlois, Essai sur les Dances des 
—•Athenaeum. Morts, 1852, 

CATALOGUE OF THE PRINTS which have been Engraved after 
^ Martin Heemskerck. By T. EerrICH, Librarian to the University of Cambridge. 
8vo, portrait, bds. 3s. Qd. 

CATALOGUE OF PICTURES, composed chiefly by the most admired 
V Masters of the Roman, Florentine, Parman, Bolognese, Venetian, Flemish, and 
French Schools ; with Descriptions and Critical Eemarks. By Eobert Foulis. 3 vols. 
12mo, cloth. 5s. 

TV/TEMOIRS OF PAINTING, with a Chronological History of the Importation 
-*-*-"- of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution. By 
W. Buchanan. 2 vols. 8vo, bds. % 7s. Qd. {original price £1. Qs.) 

HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND ESTABLISHMENT OF 
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, and an Inquiry into the mode of Painting upon and 
Staining Glass, as practised in the Ecclesiastical Structures of the Middle Ages. By 
J. S. Hawkins, F.S.A. Royal 8vo, II plates, bds. 4s. {original price 12s.) 



John Russell Smith, 36, Soho Square, London. 



popular ^oetrp, Cales, anU Superstitions. 

^THE NURSERY RHYMES OF ENGLAND, collected chiefly from 

-*■ Oral Tradition. Edited by J. O. Halliwell. The Fotjeth Edition, enlarged, 
with 38 Designs, by W. B. Scott, Director of the School of Design, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
12mo, illuminated cloth, gilt leaves. 4?. 6d. 

"Illustrations! and here they are ; clever pictures, hood a sprinkling of ancient nursery lore is worth 
which the three-year olds understand before their whole cartloads of the wise saws and modern instances 
A, B, C, and which the fifty-three-year olds like almost which are now as duly and sarefully concocted by ex- 
as well as the threes." — Literary Gazette. perienced litterateurs, into instructive tales for the 

"We arepursuaded that the very rudest of these spelling public, as are works of entertainmment for the 
jingles, tales, and rhymes, possess a strong imagination reading public. The work is worthy of the attentioa 

Mag. 



P 



: We arepursuaded that the very rudest of these spelling public, as are works of entertainmment for the 
gles, tales, and rhymes, possess a strong imagination reading public. The work is worth 
"nourishing power ; and that in infancy and early child- of the popular antiquary." — Tail's . 

OPULAR RHYMES AND NURSERY TALES, with Historical 

Elucidations. By J. O. Halliwell. 12mo, cloth. 4>s. 6d. 

This very interesting volume on the Traditional Proverb Rhymes, Places, and Families, Superstition 

Literature of England, is divided into Nursery Anti- Rhymes, Custom Rhymes and Nursery Songs ; a large 

quities, Fireside Nursery Stories, Game Rhymes, number are here printed for the first time. It may be 

Alphabet Rhymes, Riddle Rhymes, Nature Songs, considered a sequel to the preceding article. 

OLD SONGS AND BALLADS— A Little Book of Songs and Ballads, 
gathered from Ancient Music Books, MS. and Printed, by E. F. Rimbault, 
LL.D., F.S.A., &c, elegantly printed in post 8vo, pp. 240, half morocco. 6s. 

"Dr. Rimbault has been at some jpains to collect the words of the Songs which used to delight the 
Rustics of former times." — Atlas. 

T> OBIN HOOD.— The Bobin Hood G-arlands and Ballads, with the Tale of "The 
-*-*' Little G-este," a Collection of all the Poems, Songs, and Ballads relating to this 
celebrated Yeoman ; to which is prefixed his History, from Documents hitherto unrevised. 
By J. M. G-tjtch, E.S.A. 2 vols. 8vo, with numerous fine woodcuts t Sfc. t by Fairholt t 
extra cloth. £1. Is. (original price £1. 10s.) 

Two very handsome volumes, fit for the drawing-room table. 

"DALLAD ROMANCES. ByR. H. Hobne, Esq., Author of "Orion," &c 
•*-* 12mo, pp. 248, cloth. 3s. (original price 6s. 6d.) 

Containing the Noble Heart, a Bohemian Legend; description. Mr. Home should write us more Fairy 

the Monk of Swineshead Abbey, a ballad Chronicle Tales ; we know none to equal him since the days of 

of the death of King John ; the three Knights of Drayton and Herrick."— Examiner. 
Camelott, a Fairy Tale; The Ballad of Delora, or the «™ • ■ .,• , - * 

Passion of Andrea Como: BeddGelert, a Welsh Legend; • ^ J p !? m ? 1 P ^ £ thl f , volume l l a n , ne . one ' xt 

Ben Capstan, a Ballad of the Night Watch; the Elfe J 5 ?? tlt + led + tue ? ob i e . H ^ -t > » nd , n f ° nl J ln tltle . 

of the Woodlands a Child's Story but m treatm ent well imitates the style of Beaumont 

"■ Pure fancy of 'the most abundant and picturesque ana Letcher."— ^AeiwwfB. 

CjIR HUGH OP LINCOLN : or an Examination of a curious Tradition 
KJ respecting the JEWS, with a Notice of the Popular Poetry connected with it. By 
the Bev. A. Htjme, LL.D. 8vo. 2*. 

TTSSAY ON THE ARCHEOLOGY OE OUR POPULAR 

-^ PHRASES AND NURSERY RHYMES. By J. B. Keb. 2 vols. 12mo, new 
cloth. 4s. (original price 12s.) 

A work which has met with much abuse among the gossiping matter. The author's attempt is to explain 
reviewers, but those who are fond of philological pur- everv thing from the Dutch, which he believes was the 
suits will read it now it is to be had at so very mo- same language as the Anglo-Saxon, 
derate a price, and it really contains a good deal of 

TVTERRY TALES OE THE WISE MEN OE GOTHAM. 

± x Edited by James Oechaed Halliwell, Esq, F.S.A. Post 8vo. 1*. 

These tales are supposed to have been composed in " In the time of Henry the Eighth, and after," says 
the early part of the sixteenth century, by Dr. Andrew Ant.-a-Wood.. " it was accounted a book full of wit and 
.Borde, the well-known progenitor of Merry Andrews. mirth by scholars and gentlemen." 



s 



AINT PATRICK'S PURGATORY; an Essay on the Legends of HelL 



Purgatory, and Paradise, current during the Middle Ages. By Thomas Weight 
M.A., F.S.A, &c. Post 8vo, cloth. 6s. " 



ix must be observed that this is not a mere ac- the best introduction to Dante that has yet been Duh- 

count of St. Patrick's Purgatory, but a complete lished."— Literary Gazette V 

^stpryof the legends and superstitions relating to the "This appears to be a curious and even amusin* 

subject, from the earliest times, rescued from old MSS. book on the singular subject of Purgatory in which 



as well as from old printed books. Moreover, it em- the idle and fearful dreams of superstition' are shown 

braces a singular chapter of literary history fitted to be first narrated as tales, and then applied as means 

by Warton and all former waiters with whom we are of deducing the moral character of the a<*e in which 

acquainted; and we think we may add, that it forms they prevailed."— Spectator. 



Valuable and Interesting Books, Published or Sold by 

NOBLE AND RENOWNED HISTORY OF GUY, EARL OP 
WARWICK, containing a Full and True Account of his many Famous and 
Valiant Actions. Royal 12mo, woodcuts, cloth. 4s. 6d. 

PHILOSOPHY OF WITCHCRAFT, (Chiefly with respect to CasesinScoh 
*■■- land). By J. Mitchell, and J. Dickie. 12mo, cloth. Ss. (original price 6s.) 
A curious volume, and a fit companion to Six W. Scott's " Demonology and Witchcraft." 

ACCOUNT OF THE TRIAL, CONFESSION, AND CON- 

■**■ DEMNATION of Six Witches at Maidstone, 1652 ; also the Trial and Execution 
of three others at Faversham, 1645. 8vo. 1*. 

These Transactions are unnoticed by all Kentish historians. 

■WONDERFUL DISCOVERY OF THE WITCHCRAFTS OF 

V* MARGARET and PHILIP FLOWER, Daughters of Joan Flower, near Bever 
(Belvoir), executed at Lincoln, for confessing themselves Actors in the Destruction of 
Lord Rosse, Son of the Earl of Rutland, 1618. 8vo. 1*. 

One of the most extraordinary cases of Witchcraft on record. 



Bftlwsra|i!)£* 



BIBLIOTHECA MADRIGALIANA.— A Bibliographical Account of the 
Musical and Poetical Works published in England during the Sixteenth and Seven- 
teenth Centuries, under the Titles of Madrigals, Ballets, Ayres, Canzonets, &c, &c. By 
Edwakd F. Rimbatjlt, LL.D., F.S.A. 8vo, cloth. 5s. 

It records a class of books left undeserved by Ames, Catalogue of Lyrical Poetry of the age to which 
Herbert, and JDibdin, and furnishes a most valuable it refers. 

THE MANUSCRIPT RARITIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
CAMBRIDGE. By J. O. Halliwell, F.R.S. 8vo, Ids. 3s (original price 
10s. 6d.) A companion to Hartshorne's "Book Rarities" of the same University. 

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE POPULAR TRACTS, formerly in the 
Library of Captain Cox, of Coventry, a.d. 1575. By J. O. Halliwell. 8vo, only 
50 printed^ sewed. Is. 

CATALOGUE OF THE CONTENTS OF THE CODEX HOL- 
BROOKIANUS. (A Scientific MS.) By Dr. John Holbrook, Master of St. Peter's 
College, Cambridge, 1418-1431). By J. O. Halliwell. 8vo. Is. 

A CCOUNT OF THE VERNON MANUSCRIPT. A Volume of 

■**• Early English Poetry, preserved in the Bodleian Library. By J. O. Halliwell. 
8vo, only 50 printed. \s. 

"D IBLIOTHEC A CANTIANA. A Bibliographical Account of what has been 
-t' published on the History, Topography, Antiquities, Customs, and Family Genealogy 



of the County of Kent, with Biographical Notes. By John Russell Smith, in a 
handsome 8vo volume, pp. 3*70, with two plates of facsimiles of Autographs of 23 eminent 
Kentish Writers. 5s. (original price 14s.) — Laege Papeb, 10*. 6d. 



JHltsteHantes. 



N 



EW FACTS AND VERIFICATIONS OF ANCIENT BRL 

TISH HISTORY. By the Rev. Beale Poste. 8vo, with engravings, cloth. 



^pHOMAS SPROTT'S (a monk of Canterbury, circa 1280) Chronicle of Profane 
-*- and Sacred History. Translated from the original MS,, on 12 parchment skins, in 
the possession of Joseph Mayer, Esq., of Liverpool. By Dr. W. Bell. 4to, half hound 
in morocco, accompanied with an exact 'Facsimile of the entire Codex, 37 feet long, in a 
wound morocco case, privately peinted, very curious. £2. 2s. 

n^ONSTALL (Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham), Sermon preached on Palm Sunday, 
-*- 1539, before Henry VIII, reprinted veeeatim from the rare edition by Berthelet in 
1539. 12mo, Is. 6d. * 

An exceedingly interesting Sermon, at the commencement of the Reformation, Strype in his Memorials has 
made largs extracts from it. 



John Russell Smith, 36, SoTw Square, London. 

- ----- 

f APPENBERG'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, under the Anglo-Saxon 
-L^ Kings. Translated by Benj. Thobpe, with Additions and Corrections, by the Author 
\and Translator. 2 vols. 8vo, cloth. 12*. {original price £1. Is.) 

" Of modern works I am most indebted to the History the best and surest guide in penetrating the labyrinth 
of England by Lappenberg, the use of which, more of early English History."— "Kdnig Aelfred und seine 
particularly in conjunction with the translation given Stelle in der Geschichte Englands, von Dr. Reinpld 
iy Thorpe, and enriched by both those scholars, affords Pauli."— Berlin, 1851. 

LETTERS OP THE KINGS OF ENGLAND, now first collected from 
the originals in Koyal Archives, and from other authentic sources, private as well as 
public. Edited with Historical Introduction and Notes, by J. O. Halliwell. Twp 
handsome volumes, post 8vo, with portraits of Henry VIII and Charles I, cloth. 8s. 
(original price £1 Is.) 

These volumes form a good companion to Ellis's his letters to the Duke of Buckingham are of the most 
Original Letters. . singular nature ; only imagine a letter from a so 

The collection comprises for the first time the love vereignto his prime minister commencing thus ; "My 
letters of Henry the VTII. to Anne Boleyn in a com- own sweet and dear child, blessing, blessing, blessing 
plete form, which may be regarded perhaps as the on thy heart-roots and all thine." Prince Charles and 
most singular documents of the kind that have de- the Duke of Buckingham's Journey into Spain ha» 
Bcended to our times; the series of letters of Ed- never bee.n before so fully illustrated as it is by th 
ward VI will be found very interesting specimens of documents given in this work, which also includes th*- 
composition; some of the letters of James I, hitherto very curious letters from the Duke and Duchess o' 
unpublished, throw light on the murder of Overbury, Buckingham to James I. Forming an essential com 
and prove beyond a doubt the King was implicated panion. to every History of England. 
in it in some extraordinary and unpleasant way : but 

WALES. — Royal Visits and Peogeesses to Wales, and the Border Counties 
of Cheshiee, Salop, Heeeeoed, and Monmottth, from Julius Gesar, to Queen 
Victoria, including a succinct History of the Country and People, particularly of the lead- 
ing Families who Fought during the Civil Wars of Charles I., the latter from MSS. never 
before published. By Edwaed Paeey. A handsome 4to volume, with many wood 
engravings, and fine portrait of the Queen, cloth. £1. Is. 

HUNTER'S (Rev. Joseph) HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL 
TRACTS. Post 8vo. 2*. 6d. each. 

I. Agincourt; a contribution, towards an authentic III. Milton; a sheaf of Gleanings after his Bio- 
List of the Commanders of the English Host in King graphers and Annotators. 

Henry the Fifth's Expedition. IV. The Ballad Hero, "Robin Hood," his period, 

II. Collections concerning the Founders of New real character, &c, investigated, and, perhaps, ascer- 
Plymouth, the first Colonists of New England. tained. 

ARCHERY. — The Science of Archery, shewing its affinity to Heraldry, and capa- 
bilities of Attainment. By A. P. Haeeison. 8vo, sewed. Is. 
"ILLUSTRATIONS OF EATING, displaying the Omnivorous Character of 
-*- Man, and exhibiting the Natives of various Countries at feeding-time. By a Beee- 
Eatee. Fcap. 8vo, with woodcuts. 2s. 

"ELEMENTS OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE; being a Translation of 
-*-^ the Third Part of Clairbois's " Traite Elementaire de la Construction des Vaisseaux." 
By J. N. Steange, Commander, JR.N. 8vo, with five large folding plates, cloth. 5s. 

T ECTURES ON NAVAL ARCHITECTURE; being the Substance of 
-*-' those delivered at the United Service Institution. By E. Gaediner Fisjieouene 
Commander, R.N. 8vo, plates, cloth, 5s. 6d. 

Both these works are published in illustration of the " Wave System." 

NEW YORK IN THE YEAR 1695, with Plans of the City and Forts aa 
they then existed. By the Rev. John Millee. Mow first printed. 8vo, Ids. 
2s. Qd. (original price 4s. 6d.) 

THOUGHTS IN VERSE FOR THE AFFLICTED. ByaCouNTB* 
Cueate. Square 12mo, sewed. Is. 

TDOEMS, partly of Sural Life, in National English. By the Eev. William Baenes, 
-■- author of <e Poems in the Dorset Dialect." 12mo, cloth. 5s. 

WAIFS AND STRAYS. A Collection of Poetry. 12mo, only 250 printed, 
chiefly for presents, setved. Is. 6d. 
"jyriRROUR OF JUSTICES, written originally in the old French, long before 
the Conquest, and many things added by Andbew Hoene. Translated by W. 
HUGHES, of Gray's Inn. 12mo, cloth. 2s. 

A curious, interesting, and authentic treatise on ancient English Law. 



Valuable and Interesting Books, Published or Sold by 



pONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE HISTORICAL, AN- 
^ TIQUARIAN, and METRICAL. By Mark Antony Lower, M.A., F.S.A., 

Author of " Essays on English Surnames," " Curiosities of Heraldry," &c. Post 8vo, 
woodcuts, cloth. 7s 6d 

Contents. 

1 On Local Nomenclature. 

2 On the Battle of Hastings, an Historical Essay, 

3 The Lord Dacre, his mournfid end ; a Ballad. 

4 Historical and Archaeological Memoir on the Iron Worts of the South 

of England, with numerous illustrations. 

5 Winchelsea's Deliverance, or the Stout Abbot of Battayle ; in Three Fyttes. 

6 The South Downs, a Sketch ; Historical, Anecdotical, and Descriptive. 

7 On Yew Trees in Church-yards. 

8 A Lyttel G-este of a Greate Eele ; a pleasaunt Ballade. 

9 A Discourse of G-enealogy. 

10 An Antiquarian Pilgrimage in Normandy, with woodcuts. 

11 Miscellanea, &c. &c. &c. 



There is a good deal of quaint and pleasing 
reading in this volume. Mr. Lower's jokes are 
of the oldest— as befits the pleasantries of an an- 
tiquary, — but, on the whole, we seldom meet with 
more readable antiquarian essays than these. Most 
of theni have been printed elsewhere. One, on the 
South Downs, contains the best of the new matter. 
The author is at home on the wide expanse of these 
chalk ranges. He speaks with knowledge of the 
picturesque villages enclosed in their secluded 
nooks, — of the folk-lore and legends of old days 
which still abound amongst the sequestered inhabi- 
tants/and of the historical associations which render 
celebrated many spots otherwise of little interest. — 
Athenaeum. 

Most of the papers in this volume have already 
appeared in periodicals, and in the Collections of 



the Sussex Archaeological Society. They are well 
worthy of being printed in a collected form. The 
account of the Battle of Hastings and the memoir 
on the Southern Iron Works contain matter of his- 
torical value, in addition to their local interest in 
connexion with the topography and archaeology of 
Sussex. Among the papers now printed for the first 
time that on the South Downs is the most important, 
and will be read with much interest, both for the 
information it contains and the pleasing style in 
which it is written. There are some charming de- 
scriptions of scenery, and acceptable notices of the 
history, traditions, and customs of the district. 
Among the minor contributions in the volume, the 
paper on Local Nomenclature is full of valuable 
suggestions. Altogether it is a volume of very 
agreeable and instructive reading.— Lit. Gaz. 



TTANDBOOK to the LIBRARY of the BRITISH MUSEUM, 

■*-■*■ containing a brief History of its Formation, and of the various Collections of 
which it is composed; Descriptions of the Catalogues in present use ; Classed Lists of 
the Manuscripts, &c. ; and a variety of Information indispensable for the " Eeaders", 
at that Institution ; with some Account of the principal Public Libraries in London. 
By Eichaed Sims, of the Department of Manuscripts, Compiler of the " Index to 
the Heralds' Visitations." Small 8vo, pp. 438, with map and plan, cloth. 5s 



It will be found a very useful work to every 
literary person or public institution in all parts of 
the world. 

What Mr. Antonio Panizzi, the keeper of the 
department of printed books, says might be done. 
Mr. Richard Sims, of the department of the manu- 
scripts, says shall be done. His Hand-book to the 



Library of the British Museum is a very compre- 
hensive and instructive volume. I have the sixtieth 
edition of " Synopsis of the Contents of the British 
Museum" before me— I cannot expect to see a six- 
tieth edition of the Hand-book, but it deserves to be 
placed by the side of the Synopsis, and I venture to 
predict for it a wide circulation.— Mr. Bolton 
Corney, in Notes and Queries, No. 213. 



A GRAMMAR of BRITISH HERALDRY, consisting of "Blazon" 
-^*- and " Marshalling," with an Introduction on the Eise and Progress of Symbols 
and Ensigns. By the Rev. W. Sloans Evans, B.A. 8vo, with 26 plates, comprising 
upwards of 400 figures, cloth. 5s. 

One of the best introductions ever published. 

A PLEA FOR THE ANTIQUITY OF HERALDRY, with an 

•**■ Attempt to Expound its Theory and Elucidate its History. By W. Smith Ellis 
Esq., of the Middle Temple. 8vo, sewed. Is 6d 

FEW NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE, with Occasional Remarks on 
the Emendations of the Manuscript-CorrectorinMr. Collier's copy of the folio, 
1632. By the Rev. Alexander Dyce. 8vo, cloth. 5s 



A 



Mr. D yce's Notes are peculiarly delightful, from 
the stores of illustration with which his extensive 
reading not only among our writers, but among those 
of other countries, especially of the Italian poets, 



has enabled him to enrich them. All that he has 
recorded is valuable. We read his little volume 
with pleasure and close it with regret.— Literai-y 
Gazette. 



John Russell Smith, 36, Soho Square, London. 

A FEW WORDS IN REPLY TO MR. DYCE'S " FEW NOTES 
«* ri - ON SHAKESPEARE." By the Rev. Joseph Huntee. 8vo, sewed. 1* 

rPHE GRIMALDI SHAKESPEARE.— Notes and Emendations on the 
-*- Plays of Shakespeare from a recently- discovered annotated copy by the late 
Joseph Gbimaldi, Esq., Comedian. 8vo, cuts. Is 

A humourous Squib on the late Shakespeare Emendations. 

CJHAKESPEARE'S VERSIFICATION and its apparent Irregularitie8 
^ explained by Examples from early and late English Writers. By the late 
William Sidney Walker, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge ; edited 
by W. Nanson Lettsom, Esq. Fcp. 8vo, cloth. 6s. 

A PHILOLOGICAL GRAMMAR, grounded upon English, and formed 
■*-*■ from a comparison of more than Sixty Languages. Being an Introduction 
to the Science of Grammars of all Languages, especially EngHsh, Latin, and Greek. 
By the Eev. W. Barnes, B.D., of St. John's College, Cambridge. Author of " Poems 
in the Dorset Dialect," "Anglo Saxon Delectus," &c. 8vo, pp. 322, cloth. 9s 

rpiM BOBBIN'S LANCASHIRE DIALECT, with his Rhymes and 

•*■ an enlarged Glossary of Words and Phrases, used by the Rural Population of 
South Lancashire. By Samuel Bamford. 12mo, the second edition, cloth, Ss Qd 

BRITANNIC RESEARCHES : or, New Facts and Rectifications of 
Ancient British History. By the Rev. Beale Poste, M.A. 8vo, (pp. 448) 
with engravings, cloth. Vos 

The author of this volume may justly claim tient study. The objects which will occupy the 

credit for considerable learning, great industry, attention of the reader are— 1. The political position 

and, above all, strong faith in the interest and im- of the principal British powers before the Roman 

portance of his subject On various conquest— under the Roman dominion, and strug- 

points he has given us additional information and gling unsuccessfully against the Anglo-Saxon race; 

afforded us new views, for which we are bound to 2. The geography of Ancient Britain; 3. An mves- 

thank him. The body of the book is followed by a tigation of the Ancient British Historians, Gildas 

very complete index, so as to render reference to and Nennius, and the more obscure British chroni- 

eny part of it easy : this was the more necessary on clers ; 4. The ancient stone monuments of the Celtic 

account of the multifariousness of the topics period ; and, lastly, some curious and interesting 

treated, the variety of persons mentioned, and the notices of the earlv British church. Mr. Poste has 

many works quoted.— Atkenaum, Oct. 8, 1853. not touched on subjects which have received much 

The Rev. Beale Poste has long been known to attention from others, save in cases where he had 

antiquaries as one of the best read of all those who something new to offer, and the volume must be 

have elucidated the earliest annals of this country. regarded, therefore, as an entirely new collection of 

He is a practical man, has investigated for himself discoveries and deductions tending to throw light 

monuments and manuscripts, and we have in the on the darkest as well as the earliest portion of our 

above-named volume the fruits of many years' pa- national history. — Atlas. 

pOINS OF CUNOBELINE and of the ANCIENT BRITONS. 

^ By the Rev. Beale Poste, B.C.L. 8vo, plates, and many woodcuts, cloth {only 
48 printed). £1.8* 

"O ARONIA ANGLIA CONCENTRATA ; or a Concentration of all 
■*-* the Baronies called Baronies in Fee, deriving their Origin from Writ of Sum- 
mons, and not from any specific Limited Creation, showing the Descent and Line of 
Heirship, as well as those Families mentioned by Sir William Dudgale, as of those 
whom that celebrated author has omitted to notice; interspersed with Interesting Notices 
and Explanatory Remarks. Whereto is added the Proofs of Parliamentary Sitting 
from the Reign of Edward I to Queen Anne; also a Glossary of Dormant English, 
Scotch, and Irish Peerage Titles, with references to presumed existing Heirs. By Sir 
1. C. Banks. 2 vols. 4to, cloth. £3. 3* sow offered pod 15s 

A book of great research by the well-known au- to his former works. Vol. ii, pp, 210-300, contains 

thor of the " Dormant and Extinct Peerage," and an Historical Account of the first settlement of 

other heraldic and historical works. Those fond of Nova Scotia, and the foundation of the. Order of 

genealogical pursuits ought to secure a copy while Nova Scotia Baronets, distinguishing those who 

it is so cheap. It may be considered a Supplement had seisin of lands there. 



Valuable and Interesting Books, Published or Sold by 

INTROSPECTIVE REVIEW (New Series) , consisting of Criticisms 
-*-*' upon, Analysis of, and Extracts from curious, useful, valuable, and scarce Old 
Books. Vol. 1, 8vo, pp. 436, cloth. 10s 6d 

%* Published Quarterly at 2s. Gd. each Number. — No. VII is published this day. 

Contents op No. V. 

1 Sir William Davenant, Poet Laureate and Dramatist, 1673. 

2 Cooke's " Poor Man's Case," 1648. 

3 Old English Letter- writing ; Angel Day's English Secretary, 1592 j 

W. Fulwood'8 Enemy of Idlenesse. 

4 The Old Practice of Gardening ; Thos. Hyll's Briefe and Pleasaunt 

Treatise, 1563. 

5 English Political Songs and Satires, from King John to George I. 

6 Medieval Travellers in the Holy Land. 

7 The Athenian Letters, by Lord Hardwicke and others. 

8 The Writings of Wace the Trouvere. 

Anecdota Liteeaeia. — Pepy's Directions for the Disposition of 
his Library ; A Legendary Poem of the 15th Century, the Story 
laid at Falmouth, in Cornwall : both now first printed. 

Contents op No. VL 

1 Drayton's Polyolbion. 

2 Penn's No Cross No Crown. 

3 Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent. 

4 Philosophy of the Table in the Time of Charles li 

5 Russia under Peter the Great. 

6 Life and Works of Leland, the Antiquary. 

7 The Decay of Good Manners. 

8 Stephen's Essayes and Characters, 1615. 

Anecdota Liteeaeia. — The Child of Bristow, a Metrical Legend. 
Now first printed. 

The title of this Review explains its objects. It to interest modern readers ; we shall lay before them 

is intended to supply a place unfilled in our periodi- from time to time, essays on various branches of 

cal literature, and this first number is very satis- the literature of former days, English or foreign ; 

factory. The papers are varied and interesting, not we shall give accounts of rare and curious books ; 

overlaid by the display of too much learning for the point out and bring forwardbeauties from forgotten 

general reader, but showing sufficient research and authors ; and tell the knowledge and opinions of 

industry on the part of the writers to distinguish other days." The design is well carried out in this 

the articles from mere ephemeral reviews of passing number, and will, no doubt, be further developed as 

publications. In the prospectus the editor says the work advances. It is to be published quarterly, 

*" It is our design to select, from the vast field of the at a very moderate price, and will, we have no doubt, 

literature of the past, subjects which are most likely prove a successful undertaking Atlas. 

TJEMAINS OF PAGAN SAXONDOM, principally from Tumuli in 
-*-*' England. Drawn from the Originals. Described and Illustrated by John 
Yonge Akeeman, Fellow and Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. 4to, parts 
1 to 9. 2« 6d each (Pt. 10 in the press). 

The plates are admirably executed by Mr. Basire, and coloured under the direction of the Author. 
It is a work well worthy the notice of the Archaeologist. 



Dialect 
2s 6d 



TT7TLTSHIRE TALES, illustrative of the Manners, Customs, and Di 
* * of that and Adjoining Counties. By John Yonge Akeeman. 12mo, cloth, i 

We will conclude with a simple, but hearty re- mendation of preserving the old songs (and the airs 

commendation of a little book whi<?h is as humour- to which they are sung), which are still to be heard 

ous, for the drolleries of the stories, as it is in- at most harvest homes and other merry makings,— 

teresting as a picture of rustic manners. — Tallis's the well-known " Here's a health to our meester, M 

Weekly Paper. and a "A pie upon the pear tree top" among tbe 

Mr. Akerman's Wiltshtee Tales embody rest. Both to the philologist, therefore, and to the 

most of the provincialisms peculiar to this county general reader, the book is an interesting one.— 

and the districts of other counties lying on its Salisbury and Winchester Journal. 
northern borders, and possess the addition air ecom- 

HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE TOWN OF 
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This volume describes a portion of "Wilts not occupied by Sir R. C. Hoare and othejr topographers. 



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DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE COLLECTION OF 
ANTIQUITIES, and other Objects Illustrative of Irish History, exhibited in 
the Belfast Museum, at the Meeting of the British Association, Sep. 1852, with 
Antiquarian Notes. 8vo, sewed. \s Qd 

ANTIQUITIES OF SHROPSHIRE. By the Rev. R. W. Etton, 
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The Work will extend at least to five volumes or withdraw his name after the publication of any 
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ANTIQUITIES OF THE BOROUGH OF LEEDS, described 

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7s 6d — Large Papee. 12* 

TTISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CISTERCIAN ABBEY 

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: A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF LIVERPOOL, as it was during 

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A GUIDE TO LYNTON AND PLACES ADJACENT, IN 

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ARCHAEOLOGICAL MINE, a Magazine in which will be comprised 
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T)UNCUMB'S (Rev. John) HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES 

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£1. 4s Hereford, 1804-12 

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This copy contains five additional sheets (the Hun- copies, 
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JJISTORY OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA and the other 

Territories on the North West Coast of America, accompanied by a Geogra- 
phical View and Map and a number of Proofs and Illustrations of the History. By 
Eobeet Geeenhow, Librarian of the Department of State of the United States. 
Thick 8vo, laege map, cloth. 6s (pub. at 16s) 

JJISTORY OF ANGLING LITERATURE, and on Matters con- 
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General Bibliography of Books on Angling. By an Angles. Fcp. 8vo, cloth. 5* 
(nearly ready). 

PHRISTMASTIDE, its History, Festivities, and Carols. By William 
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ENGEAVINGS APTEE THE DESIGNS OE J. StEPHANOEP, cloth. 14* 

Its title vouches that Christmaxtide is germane to Provengal, are selected from numerous sources., and 
the time. Mr. Sandys has brought together, in an comprise many of the less known, and more worth 
octavo of some 300 pages, a great deal of often knowing. His materials are presented with good 
interesting information, beyond the stale gossip feeling and mastery of his theme, and for excellent 
about ' ' Christmas in the olden time," and the taste and appropriateness in binding, without ex- 
threadbare make-believes of jollity and geniality treme costliness, the book is a model. On the 
which furnish forth most books on the subject. His whole, the volume deserves, and should anticipate, 
carols too, which include some in old French and a welcome. — Spectator. 



JUST IMPORTED. 
JJISTOIRE DE L> ARCHITECTURE SACREE du quatrieme au 

dixieme siecle dans les anciens eveches de Geneve, Lausanne et Sion. Par 
J. D. Blavignac, Architecte. One vol. 8vo, pp. 450, and 37 plates, and a 4to Atlas 
of 82 plates of Architecture, Sculpture, Frescoes, Reliquaries, Sfc. Sfc. £2. 10s 

A VEET EEMAEKABLE BOOK, AND WOETH THE NOTICE OP THE AeCHITEOT, 

the Aecheologist, AND the Aetist. 
(COPENHAGEN— THE TRAVELLER'S HANDBOOK TO 

^ COPENHAGEN and its Environs. By Anglicanus. 12mo, with large Map 
of Sealand, Flan of Copenhagen, and Views. 12mo, cloth. 8s 

ANTIGUEDADES PERUANAS, P or Maeiano Edttaedo de Eiveeo, 
Director del Museo Nacional de Lima, y Dr. Juan Diego de Tschud* 
(author of Travels in Feru). 4to, pp. 342, with woodcuts, and folio volume of 

COLOUEED PLATES, Ids. £5. 5* 

A description of remains discovered in the sites tesque form and characteristic idols in terra cotta and 

of ancient cities and temples in Peru, those objects the precious metals, textile fabrics, weapons of a 

which arrested the attention and excited the won- very remote period, and view of temples and build- 

der of the philosophic Humboldt, when investi- ings, which, for symmetry and beauty, may yie with 

gating the physical features of that remarkable those of Greece and Asia Minor in the dawn of 

country. The illustrative plates, executed at civilisation, all executed with a spirit and trathtul- 

Vienna, from the drawings of the Artist, are among ness unsurpassed by any work of the kind that has 

the marvels of lithography. They comprise repre- come under our notice.— Literary Gazette, Jan. 8, 

6entations of mummified bodies, prepared in the 1853. 
manner peculiar to the Peruvians, vases of gro- 

ESSAI HISTORIQUE PHlXiOSOPHIQUE et Pittoresque sur 
les Danses des Morts. Par E. H. Langlois ; suivi d'une Lettre de Leber, et 
line note de Depping sur le meme sujet, publiepar Pottier et Baudry, 2 vols, royal 8vo, 
with Opiates of Death's Dance of various ages, also many vignettes, sewed, £1. 1* 

T A ROMAINE, ou HISTOIRE, LANGUE, LITTERATURE, 

J-J OEOGEAPHIE, statistique des Peuples de la Langue d'Or, Adnahens, Val- 
laques, et Moldaves, resumes sous le nom ds Eomans. Par J. A. Vaillant, 3 vols, 8vo 
sewed, 18*. 

VOYAGES, Eelations, et Memoires originaux pour servir a l'Histoire de 
la Decouverte de l'Amerique, publies pour la premiere fois en Erancais. Par 
E. Teenaux-Compans. 20 vols. 8vo, both Series, and complete. Sewed, £3. 10* 

A valuable collection of early voyages and relations on South America; also translations of unpublished 
Spanish MSS., principally relating to Old and New Mexico. 






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